THE HAGUE, March 3 (Hina) - The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Friday sentenced Tihomir Blaskic, former commander of the central Bosnian Operative Zone, to 45 years in prison.
THE HAGUE, March 3 (Hina) - The Hague-based International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Friday sentenced
Tihomir Blaskic, former commander of the central Bosnian Operative
Zone, to 45 years in prison. #L#
Blaskic was found guilty on all counts of the indictment against
him, except for the shelling of Zenica in 1993. The counts include
crimes against humanity, violations of the laws or customs of war,
and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions during the Croat-
Moslem war in Central Bosnia between May 1992 and January 1994.
"The crimes you committed, General Blaskic, are extremely serious.
The acts of war carried out with disregard for international
humanitarian law and in hatred of other people, the villages
reduced to rubble, the houses and stables set on fire and destroyed,
the people forced to abandon their homes, the lost and broken lives
are unacceptable," the trial chamber's presiding judge, French
judge Claude Jorda, said reading the verdict.
General Blaskic, you showed no respect for rules and this is
something you are aware of. The trial chamber thus sentences you to
a prison term of 45 years, Jorda said.
While Blaskic, 39, listened to the reading of the sentence calmly
standing and without a change of expression on his face, his wife
Ratka shoved her face in her hands and then collapsed from a chair in
the gallery from which family members and reporters watched the
reading of the sentence.
Jorda said Blaskic must not be alone in taking responsibility for
crimes for which the trial chamber clearly stated were also the
responsibility of the leadership of Herzeg-Bosnia and their
politics, as well as aspirations for joining Croat territories in
Bosnia-Herzegovina to Croatia.
In 1993 crimes in the Lasva Valley (Bosnia-Herzegovina) took place
according to a pattern whose goal was to ensure impossible
conditions for Moslems to remain in the area, and thus open the
gates to persecution and ethnic cleansing of the Central Bosnia
territory, the trial chamber asserted.
"On April 16, 1993, at 05:30 hours and then over the following days,
the Lasva Valley became the theatre of many crimes -- civilians were
killed or wounded, houses set alight, minarets brought down,
mosques destroyed, women and children separated from the men and
left with no choice but to flee, women raped and men imprisoned,
beaten and led off to the front to dig trenches".
Everywhere or almost everywhere the same scenario was repeated,
Jorda said.
According to the trial chamber, Blaskic is responsible as commander
for commanding attacks which resulted in crimes for which he is,
therefore, responsible.
He is also responsible for not taking any action to prevent the
crimes, as well as to punish the perpetrators.
The trial chamber dismissed claims by the defence council that
Blaskic had not commanded the military police and special purpose
units, for which the defence had asserted were responsible for the
most grievous crimes in Central Bosnia.
The trial chamber declared that the conflict in Central Bosnia was
international in nature in which Croatia was directly involved with
its armed forces and because of Croatia's overall control of
Bosnian Croat forces and authorities.
"The Republic of Croatia did not content itself merely with
remaining a spectator on the sidelines or even seek simply to
protect its borders. It intervened in the conflict putting the
Moslems and Croats of Central Bosnia against each other," judge
Jorda said.
This is the first time for an ICTY verdict to have asserted
Croatia's involvement and created a foundation for applying the
violation of the Geneva Conventions for which international
conflict must be proven.
Croatian troops were present in many areas in Bosnia-Herzegovina,
including the Lasva Valley, Jorda said, recalling nationalist and
territorial ambitions of former Croatian President Franjo Tudjman
towards Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The trial chamber also assessed there was evidence of crimes
committed against Croats which must be processed.
(hina) lml mm