PROSECUTION, DEFENCE IN KORDIC-CERKEZ TRIAL TO COMPLETE SUMMATIONS FRIDAY

THE HAGUE, Dec 14 (Hina) - Presenting their summations before the Hague war crimes tribunal on Thursday, prosecutors in the case 'Kordic-Cerkez' said the former vice-president of the Croat community of Herzeg-Bosnia, Dario Kordic, and the former commander of the Vitez brigade, Mario Cerkez, played key roles in the policy and attacks which resulted in ethnic cleansing in central Bosnia. Kordic's defence claimed Kordic had never been a military commander or held any executive powers. Both the prosecution and defence will present their conclusions before the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Friday, when the prosecution is expected to request sentences for the two indictees. Before that, Cerkez's defence will present its closing argument. Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice, who explained the prosecution's evidence and witness statements, said no important decision could be made without Kordic. That is a reality he cannot he escape, Nice said, enumerating responsible posts Kordic had held in Herzeg-Bosnia and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as transcripts of conversations proving that he had issued military orders and continually controlled war events. Much can be concluded about Kordic's activities, for which there is no direct evidence, from circumstantial evidence, Nice said. Upon the judge's request to describe the relationship between Kordic and the commander of the Central Bosnia Operative Zone, Tihomir Blaskic, sentenced early this year to 45 years in prison, Nice said Kordic had never been less powerful than Blaskic and there were documents proving that in some situations he had been even more powerful. Documents about attacks on the villages of the Lasva river valley, including Ahmici, show close cooperation and coordination between Kordic, Blaskic and Cerkez, said Nice, quoting reports which circulated among the main Croat figures by hour. According to the prosecution, in the days of the fiercest attacks in April 1993, Kordic sent orders to Blaskic to, for example, "send back up" or "close the circle" while Blaskic sent orders to Cerkez to "take Donja Veceriska, Ahmici, Sibrino selo and Vrhovina". Kordic and Blaskic received information about progress on the ground whereas Kordic and the commander of the Ahmici military police, Pasko Ljubicic, were directly linked, the prosecutor said. Part of the new evidence in the Kordic-Cerkez trial came from the Croat Defence Council (HVO) archive the new Croatian authorities made available for the Hague prosecution in May this year. The materials also include Cerkez's report to Blaskic of April 16 1993, confirming that the village of "Ahmici has been finished 70%", or documents on a meeting between Kordic and local leaders on the day before the Ahmici massacre, which show that Kordic was requested to postpone the attack on Ahmici. While the defence contested the authenticity of those documents, especially an HVO war diary, the prosecution questioned the credibility of statements by defence witnesses by juxtaposing them with those documents. As regards Croatia's role, Nice said the late Croatian president Franjo Tudjman had known that there was no peaceful solution in Bosnia-Herzegovina and that such a policy moved the events. Kordic and Cerkez are charged with the systematic persecution of Bosnian Muslims on the political, racial, ethic or religious basis in the area of the Croat Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia from late 1991 to March 1994, in Kordic's case, and in the areas of Vitez, Novi Travnik and Busovaca from April 1992 to August 1993 in Cerkez's case. (hina) rml