THE HAGUE, Aug 3 (Hina) - A Hague war crimes tribunal indictment against three former Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina commanders says at least 200 civilians, mostly Bosnian Croats, were killed and a lot more wounded in Central Bosnia
between January 1993 and January 1994. Besides civilians, the indictment says the Army of BH also killed captured soldiers of the Croat Defence Council (HVO), the Croat component of the army of Bosnia's Croat-Muslim federation. Generals Enver Hadzihasanovic, 51, and Mehmed Alagic, 54, and Col. Amir Kubura, 37, were arrested on Thursday by the federation's authorities. The UN tribunal's prosecutor's office charges them on commanding responsibility with violations of the laws and customs of war and grave breaches of the Geneva conventions, namely executions and massacres of Croat civilians and HVO soldiers following Army of BH attacks on villages and towns in Central Bosnia
THE HAGUE, Aug 3 (Hina) - A Hague war crimes tribunal indictment
against three former Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina commanders says at
least 200 civilians, mostly Bosnian Croats, were killed and a lot
more wounded in Central Bosnia between January 1993 and January
1994.
Besides civilians, the indictment says the Army of BH also killed
captured soldiers of the Croat Defence Council (HVO), the Croat
component of the army of Bosnia's Croat-Muslim federation.
Generals Enver Hadzihasanovic, 51, and Mehmed Alagic, 54, and Col.
Amir Kubura, 37, were arrested on Thursday by the federation's
authorities.
The UN tribunal's prosecutor's office charges them on commanding
responsibility with violations of the laws and customs of war and
grave breaches of the Geneva conventions, namely executions and
massacres of Croat civilians and HVO soldiers following Army of BH
attacks on villages and towns in Central Bosnia.
The three commanders are also responsible for the destruction and
plunder of predominantly Croat-populated villages and towns, and
the harassment of POW, including killing, brutally torturing, and
using them to dig trenches and as human shield, as a result of which
some died, according to the indictment.
It says that in April and early summer of 1993, the Army of BH Third
Corps, in which the three indictees were commanders, launched a
series of heavy artillery attacks on the HVO, including in the
municipalities of Bugojno, Busovaca, Kakanj, Maglaj, Novi Travnik,
Travnik, Vares, Vitez, Zavidovici, Zenica, and Zepce.
Said operations culminated in a large-scale June 7-13 attack in the
municipalities of Kakanj, Travnik, and Zenica, in which an
important role was played by the Seventh Muslim Mountain Brigade,
which included Mujahedeens.
Seven civilians and HVO soldiers were killed in Dusina in January of
1993, four HVO soldiers in Miletici in April, and some 30 civilians
and HVO soldiers in Maline and Bikosi in June of 1993.
The indictments charges the three commanders with the inhuman
detention in 1993 of Bosnian Croat civilians and soldiers in a
school in Zenica, barracks in Travnik, several locations in
Mehurici, a camp at Orasac, and several locations in the Kakanj and
Bugojno areas.
The harassment of the prisoners included torture and beatings, in
some case to death. Prisoners were also forced to dig their own
graves and were kept in inhuman and unsanitary conditions.
According to the indictment, the Mujahedeens, the ethnically pure
members of the Seventh Muslim Brigade, were especially zealous in
that regard.
Hadzihasanovic was commander of the Army of BH Third Corps, which
covered Central Bosnia. Alagic was commander of the Third Corps
Operational Group before succeeding Hadzihasanovic as corps
commander. Kubura was commander of the Seventh Muslim Brigade.
The indictment was approved on July 13.
Hadzihasanovic and Kubura testified before the Hague tribunal two
years ago as witnesses in the trial of the commander of the Central
Bosnia Operational Zone, Tihomir Blaskic.
(hina) ha