GEN.MERDAN:THERE WERE MEMBERS OF CROATIA'S ARMY IN CENTRAL BOSNIA

THE HAGUE, Jan 19 (Hina) - Brigadier General of Bosnia- Herzegovina's Federal Army, Djemal Merdan, on Wednesday testified before the Hague-based Tribunal that there had been troops of Croatia's Army and Croatia's officers during the Croat-Moslem conflict in central Bosnia. In the Lasva river valley there were units of HV (Croatia's Army)...and we asked their withdrawal, Merdan said during the trial of Bosnian Croats Dario Kordic and Mario Cerkez accused by the ICTY (International War Crimes Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia) of having committed war crimes. During the Croat-Moslem clashes in central Bosnia, while Merdan was the commander of the Territorial Defence of the city of Zenica and later a deputy commander of the Third Corps of the (Moslem-led) Army of BiH, he met Croatian General Slobodan Praljak. Kordic, Vice-President of Herzeg-Bosnia and Cerkez, a former commander of the HVO Vitez brigade, are being tried because they have been charged with crimes against humanity over Moslems in the Croat-controlled areas in central Bosnia. The two are also accused of breaches of the Geneva conventions, but this count can be accepted only if it is proved that the above- mentioned conflict had international character. The ICTY prosecution holds that Croatia was involved in the Croat-Moslem conflict in central Bosnia. (hina) mm ms