BLASKIC SAYS MILITARY POLICE HAD SUBMITTED FALSE REPORT ON AHMICI

THE HAGUE, Feb 26 (Hina) - Croatian Defence Council (HVO) general Tihomir Blaskic on Friday told the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague the HVO military police had given him a false report on events which resulted in the destruction of the central Bosnian village of Ahmici and the killing of 96 Muslims on April 16, 1993. "The report on the events in Ahmici was incorrect," Blaskic said in response to his attorney Anto Nobilo's question whether, based on what he knows today, he believed the military police report reflected the actual situation in Ahmici. Judge Claude Jorda, who is heading the trial against Blaskic, said the military police in question was under Blaskic's command. The defendant explained the military police had been placed temporarily under his command by an April 15, 1993 order of the HVO chief-of-staff. Blaskic also said that on April 16, 1993, on two occasions, at 1.52am and at 7.45pm he had demanded that the military police be deployed on the hillside above Ahmici. That was the only logical military decision to control one of the main roads in Lasvanska Valley, where the village is, he said. "The position in the village has no military significance at all," the defendant said. Today he believes the military police never reached the hills but stayed in Ahmici all the time. During his defence testimony, Blaskic was visibly tired and had occasional concentration problems. This is the eighth day he has been testifying in his own defence. The trial will resume on March 8 with Blaskic's chronological account of the Croat-Muslim war in Bosnia. (hina) ha mm