ARREST WARRANTS ISSUED FOR FIVE BOSNIAN CROATS FROM MOSTAR

SARAJEVO, April 20 (Hina) - The Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Interior Ministry has issued arrest warrants for five Bosnian Croats from Mostar charged with war crimes by the canton's prosecution, Sarajevo-based daily "Dnevni Avaz" said on Thursday. According to the paper, the arrest warrants have been issued for Zeljko Djidic Djido, a former president of the Croatian Democratic Union's Mostar City Committee, Ivan Skutor, Erhard Poznic, Mato Anicic, and Zoran Soldo. Under a March 2 decision of the Mostar-based Cantonal Court, local police have been ordered to apprehend and detain the five suspects. Thus far, not one of the five has turned himself in. Since police had not found them on their home addresses, the canton's Interior Minister Dragan Mandic and his deputy Sefkija Dziho signed arrest warrants, which were released to all police departments. "Dnevni Avaz" claims there is information the five suspects recently have stayed in western Mostar, and that police in the southern Bosnian town's Croat majority municipalities has actually not attempted to carry out the arrests. An indictment against Djidic and the others was confirmed by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague in June 1999. The Tribunal then appointed an investigator to help in the arrests. Djidic and the others are charged with war crimes against military and civilian prisoners of war committed in the Mostar area during last decade's Croat-Muslim conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina. (hina) ha