WITNESS: STELA SHOT AT PRISONERS-OF-WAR

THE HAGUE, Sept 19 (Hina) - A Muslim member of Bosnia'a Croat Defence Council (HVO) on Wednesday testified that Vinko Martinovic alias Stela, an indictee of the UN war crimes tribunal, had shot at arrested Muslims in the area of Mostar. During the trial of Stela and another Bosnian Croat indictee, Mladen Naletilic alias Tuta, this protected witness, who was 20 at the time of the Croat-Muslim armed conflict in Mostar, described events from 1993. According to his testimony, captured Muslims were taken to a separation line in the area of Mostar under Martinovic's control, forced to wear camouflage uniforms and lie over sand bags on the front-line. "The prisoners were caught in the cross-fire and some were shot," the wintess said. Asked by a prosecutor where Martinovic was at the time and what he had been doing, the witness responded he had seen him shoot at the prisoners. The witness, who has known Martinovic since childhood, added that Muslim prisoners were taken daily to the area under Martinovic's control where they had to dig trenches and fortify HVO positions. "Once, Stela gave me the order that we must not give them anything to drink or eat," the witness said. He added Naletilic's subordinates once said that a day before a May attack on Mostar Muslims, Naletilic announced that mosques would be mined, women and children expelled and men taken to detention centres while those who might offer resistance should be killed on the spot. The witness quoted a commentary of another HVO member, Zeljko Martinovic Zeljo, who has also known Stela since childhood. Zeljko Martinovic, shocked by the killings, persecutions, and detention of Muslims at the town's soccer stadium, said "he could not believe that (Stela) could be so cruel... he has transformed into a beast," the witness said. The defendants Naletilic and Martinovic are charged with the persecution of local Muslims and inhumane treatment of POWs. Another witness who gave testimony on Wednesday was a French reporter. He is also a protected witness. The reporter spoke about how he had often seen Naletilic meet with the then Croatian Defence Minister, Gojko Susak, either in Zagreb or in Siroki Brijeg in southern Bosnia-Herzegovina. During their opening speech, prosecutors put the indictment against Naletilic against the backdrop of the set-up of the Croat community of Herzeg-Bosnia by Bosnian Croat hard-liners, whose final goal was to annexe this purely Croat entity to Croatia. The prosecution asserted that those bids were made under the auspices of the then Croatian President, Franjo Tudjman, and his political party - the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). Naletilic was one of several Bosnian Croat leaders in Herzegovina who regularly travelled to Croatia to meet Susak, while Susak visited Naletilic at his headquarters in Siroki Brijeg, prosecutor Kenneth Scott said. He put those meetings within a political framework - a planned campaign for the creation of an ethnically homogenous state. During cross-examination, the French journalist witness said he knew that Susak was born in Siroki Brijeg where his parents' and himself had a house. He added he knew the friendship between Susak and Naletilic dated back to their school days, when they attended a local grammar school. The Frenchman said he stayed at Naletilic's villa in Siroki Brijeg several times during the war in Bosnia. The prosecution accuses Naletilic of having used POWs for forced labour on his premises. For instance, prisoners were forced to build a swimming pool there, according to the indictment. The defence claims the house in question was not Naletlic's property. (hina) ms/ha