PROTEST RALLY IN MOSTAR DEMANDS RELEASE OF BLASKIC

MOSTAR, Mar 8 (Hina) - The Association of Homeland War Volunteers and Veterans of the Croat Defence Council of Herceg-Bosna on Wednesday protested in Mostar, southern Bosnia-Herzegovina, the 45-year-imprisonment sentence The Hague war crimes tribunal last week passed against Tihomir Blaskic, a Bosnian Croat general. Thousands of protesters demanded that Croat politicians at all levels of authority in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BH) and its Croat- Muslim federation resign on their posts, except Bosnian Presidency member Ante Jelavic. At the protest, staged under the headline "Let's Prevent a New Bleiburg (the site of mass killings of Croats at the end of World War Two in southern Austria)", representatives of Mostar branches of all Homeland War associations read out demands urging the Bosnian Croat political leadership to sever co-operation with the international community, boycott April's local elections in Bosnia, and sever cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. A request "ordering the political leadership of the Croat people in BH to prepare and organise a Croat people's plebiscite on the establishment of a third entity in BH, and that a decision on the matter be passed by the end of March this year," was read out twice and with rapturous applause. Several speakers extolled Herceg-Bosna. The vice president of Bosnia's Croatian Democratic Union, Jozo Maric, also speaking on behalf of party president Jelavic, said the Croat community of Herceg-Bosna and the Croat republic of Herceg-Bosna had not been established to divide BH, but to protect the Croat people in BH, as well as BH itself. Anto Jozic, a representative of Croatia's Association of Homeland War Volunteers and Veterans, urged Croatian President Stipe Mesic to publicly speak about his testimony in The Hague. "Anybody going against the interests of the Croatian people will have to deal with the volunteers," Jozic said. The speakers at the protest pointed out they would continue staging protests as long as general Blaskic was in prison. They also demanded a re-examination of British officials' responsibility during last decade's conflict in Central Bosnia. People from the crowd shouted "We Want Herceg-Bosna!" Alongside Croatian national flags, the protesters waved a plethora of banners demanding Blaskic's release and accusing the international community. The Mostar protest proceeded without incidents. Posters of Mladen Naletilic Tuta, whom The Hague tribunal accused of war crimes, are all around town. The protesters urged the Croatian government not to extradite Tuta. (hina) ha mm