FORMER HOS MEMBER TESTIFIES IN CERKEZ/KORDIC WAR CRIMES TRIAL

THE HAGUE, Mar 7 (Hina) - A former HOS member at the Kordic/Cerkez trial at The Hague war crimes tribunal on Tuesday linked Croatian general Slobodan Praljak and Herceg-Bosna top officials, the late Mate Boban, and Dario Kordic with a crime in Stupni Do, a village in central Bosnia-Herzegovina. HOS was a Croatian armed force formed by the Croatian Party of Rights during last decade's war. The witness said Croat Defence Council (HVO) commander Ivica Rajic arrived in Vares, central Bosnia-Herzegovina, at the above mentioned officials' order to attack Muslim villages and make Croats flee the area. Rajic, after whom The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia issued an arrest warrant, was the commander of the second Central Bosnia operative group. Like Dario Kordic, the former president of the Bosnian Croat community of Herceg-Bosna, Rajic is charged with the killing of at least 16 inhabitants of Stupni Do on 23 September 1993. According to the testimony of the former HOS member, who is listed as protected witness AO from Vares, Rajic arrived in the central Bosnian town a few days before the Stupni Do massacre, at Kordic's request and on the basis of an order "signed by general Praljak." "Ivica Rajic was sent by Dario Kordic and general Praljak, and from (Grude) he also brought other documents (...) on the relief of (HVO's) command in Vares and the arrest of Vares' political leadership," witness AO told the tribunal. The testimony and subsequent cross-examination failed to clarify AO's real role in HVO leadership meetings he testified about, or his role in the organisation of Croat attacks on Stupni Do. The testimony was frequently imprecise and unclear due to the witness' constant avoidance to give concrete answers. Asked by prosecutor Geoffrey Nice what fate the Croat leadership from Grude had in mind for Croats from the area, witness AO said that "Croats from Vares, according to the decision brought from Grude, were supposed to move out of Vares." "Genocide had to be carried out to make Croats leave that town (...) because Vares was no longer in Herceg-Bosnia's option," AO said, basing his knowledge on meetings with Rajic and the orders from Grude which he saw at that time at HVO's headquarters in Vares. Based on an agreement between Bosnia's Serbs and Croats, Croats also had to leave Zepce and Kiseljak, AO said. He testified that at one meeting at HVO headquarters in September 1993 he saw an order from Grude with Dario Kordic's signature below the typed name of Mate Boban. The order instructed HVO in Vares to seek Bosnian Serb forces' assistance in fighting off the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina. AO said Rajic arrived in Vares for the first time a few days before the Stupni Do massacre. The Croat forces which took part in the attack on Stupni Do arrived across Serb territory the following night. The witness said Rajic had sent "many soldiers" to Stupni Do, promising them they could keep all the goods they came across as war booty. According to his testimony, the Croat forces headed for Stupni Do at one o'clock in the morning, when AO was at headquarters with Ivica Rajic. The main attack took place around 4 a.m. on October 23. AO said the attack resulted in Croats leaving Vares over two or three days, reaching Kiseljak across Serb territory. The witness claimed his source of information on the overall situation during the Bosnian war were other contacts as well, among them with Croatian parliament president Zlatko Tomcic. (hina) ha jn