PROTEST RALLY HELD IN KISELJAK FOR BLASKIC'S SENTENCE

KISELJAK, March 8 (Hina) - The association of victims of the Homeland War and Croat officials of the Central Bosnia Canton organised a protest rally in Kiseljak, near Sarajevo, Wednesday, against a decision made by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentencing general Tihomir Blaskic to 45 years in prison. About five thousand people gathered from fifteen municipalities of the Central Bosnia Canton, carrying posters, some of which read "Justice is blind after all", "We are all rooting for you", and "Is it a crime and sin to love their people and fight for them?". Addressing the gathered, deputy president of the Bosnian Federation, Ivo Andric Luzanski, asked "are we free despite the fact that nearly 10,000 Croats laid their lives for our freedom?" "The sentence to Blaskic is a sentence to every one of us, we are all general Blaskic's- If we are guilty for taking the referendum for an independent Bosnia-Herzegovina, for organising ourselves and were the first to defend Bosnia-Herzegovina from the former Yugoslav People's Army, if we are guilty of all this, we are prepared to bear responsibility," Luzanski said. (hina) lml mm