DISPLACED BOSNIAN CROATS ASK OSCE TO REPLACE ZIJAD PADALOVIC

MOSTAR, May 17 (Hina) - The municipal committee of displaced Croats from Konjic (50km south of Sarajevo) forwarded an open letter to the Jablanica office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission, protesting for the election of Zijad Padalovic, a war crimes suspect, for councilman of the Konjic municipality at the recent local elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The displaced Croats requested of the OSCE Mission to oust Padalovic. Charges were filed against Padalovic and other war crimes suspects for war crimes against Croats in north Herzegovina in 1993, five years ago at the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The committee asserted in the letter the tribunal's investigator in Mostar, Bart D'Hooge had on September 28, 1996, been informed about the issue. An indictment could be issued against Padalovic in The Hague any day now, the displaced Croats recalled. Padalovic had been reported for the violent killing of Zdravko Djapa, a member of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), on March 23, 1993, and the injuring of several imprisoned HVO soldiers in Butorovic Polje. Padalovic shot with a machine gun at the prisoners, and Mato Drljo succumbed to his wounds. Padalovic participated as member of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the mass killing of Croats in the village of Trusini (Konjic municipality) on April 16, 1993, on the same day when the crime (against Moslems) had been committed in Ahmici (central Bosnia), the letter said. (hina) lml mm