CENTRAL BOSNIA OFFICIALS SEEK B. CROAT POLITICAL LEADERSHIP SESSION

VITEZ, March 4 (Hina) - Holding General Tihomir Blaskic innocent due to the fact that The Hague Tribunal had not proven his individual guilt, Croat officials of the Central Bosnia Canton on Saturday asked the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and all Croat political parties in Bosnia-Herzegovina to initiate a joint session of the Bosnian Croat leadership at which the relations towards the international war crimes tribunal would be reviewed. The officials concluded a central Bosnian Croat protest rally should take place in Kiseljak on March 8. 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 for 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. Participants of the session, also attended by President of the Bosnian Federation, Ivo Andric Luzanski, concluded that the sentence read to General Blaskic confirmed the Tribunal was a political, instead of being a justice body. They requested the Republic of Croatia to hold a parliament session to discuss relations with the ICTY, and President Stipe Mesic and justice and foreign ministers to visit Central Bosnia with the aim of jointly finding appropriate solutions and establish further cooperation on honest grounds. Relations with the international community in Bosnia-Herzegovina and partners in the federation must also be reviewed, as well as concrete political stances about the position of Bosnian Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina, participants said. (hina) lml