DELALIC:THERE WAS NO PROBE INTO GRABOVICA MASSACRE

SARAJEVO, March 30 (Hina) - Ramiz Delalic alias Celo, a former commander of the Bosnian Army's ninth mountain brigade, on Thursday said no investigation had ever been launched in the massacre over Croats in the village of Grabovica (southern Bosnia-Herzegovina), on the basis of any order given by General Rasim Delic, the war-time and current commander of Bosnia's armed forces. "I am fed up with attempts of high-ranking officers to wash their hands of the Grabovica crime and shift the responsibility to me and the ninth brigade," Delalic said in an interview he granted to Thursday's issue of the "Oslobodjenje" daily. Delalic thus opposed statements of General Delic quoted by the same daily a day before. Gen. Delic claimed that immediately upon receiving information about the massacre in that Herzegovinian village he had issued an order about a probe in the events, adding that the ninth mountain brigade's members were suspected of the crime. Rasim Delic tried to deny statements that he also bears a part of responsibility, on the basis of the commanding chain, for the massacre of Croat civilians in that village in September 1993 during the Croat-Moslem conflict, as he allegedly failed to do anything to establish who were culprits and punish them appropriately. Such claims have recently been published by the Sarajevo-based weekly "Slobodna Bosna". "Osobodjenje" published a copy of Delic's order for the investigation of 12 September 1993, two days after the crime was committed. The command included an order to Delalic to return to Sarajevo immediately. On the other hand, Delalic said "I assert and I have told this to Hague Tribunal prosecutors that nobody asked me to come back to Sarajevo...and I assert, what is more important that nobody had no knowledge of such command." Delalic, however, added that during those critical days in September 1993, all who happened to be at that front knew of an order issued by Alija Izetbegovic, to cease all offensive activities there. Izetbegovic's order was namely the direct result of the massacre in Grabovica. I saw with my eyes Sefer Halilovic (the then Bosnian Army headquarters chief-of-staff) and Zulfikar Alispago (the then operative commander of the Bosnian Army's units in Herzegovina) tear the paper with that order, Delalic said. Speaking of the events in Grabovica, he did not witness them as during the time when the villagers were killed he had not been in Grabovica. Later when he returned there he heard from his unit's members that there were two Croat boys who had managed to escape the massacre. I immediately told my soldiers to line up and asked the two boys to show whether they could recognise killers of their parents, grandparents and three-year-old sister. They did not recognise them. However, a month ago I established that a member of the ninth brigade was the killer. He had taken the ring of their mother, Delalic described events in Thursday's interview. He stressed that he had talked about it to prosecutors of the ICTY (International War Crimes Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia), and according to him, they (prosecutors) had already known more or less about the matter. "They know the name of that killer and I can say only that he is now an inspector in the Interior Ministry," Delalic said adding that authorities are accusing innocent people and covering up the responsible. He claimed that during the massacre a few Bosnian Army high-ranking officers happened to be there, such as Vehbija Karic and Rifat Bilajac, besides Halilovic. "Nobody asked an investigation. All kept silent but asked from me to 'remove' the children," Delalic said and emphasised that he had declined to do so and therefore these two important witnesses remained live. (hina) mm ms