BLASKIC RESUMES TESTIMONY IN HIS DEFENCE BEFORE HAGUE TRIBUNAL

THE HAGUE, Mar 8 (Hina) - Croatian Defence Council (HVO) General Tihomir Blaskic on Monday resumed testifying in his defence at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Blaskic is accused of having violated the Geneva Conventions, the rules and customs of war, and of crimes against humanity committed in central Bosnia-Herzegovina between May 1992 and January 1994. On Monday, Blaskic told the tribunal the fourth military police battalion was not under his command during the hours of April 16, 1993, when some 100 Muslims were massacred in the central Bosnian village of Ahmici. He began commanding the Ahmici-based battalion only midday, when he had first been contacted by battalion commander Pasko Ljubicic. "I was contacted by the commander of the military police who told me, quote, 'we are in combat, it is very hard, they are persistent and are using all available means against us, even women, the hardest is inside the houses, around the mosque and the school'", the defendant said. He explained this conversation took place "at 11.42am according to my notes." Commanding a temporarily given unit begins only at the first contact with the unit's commander, Blaskic said. Assuming command is "that moment when the commander of the subordinate unit reports to the commander he is becoming subordinate to and puts himself and his unit at his disposal," the defendant explained. At the time of the Ahmici crime, Blaskic commanded the Central Bosnia Operative Zone. He is charged for the civilians' massacre on commanding accountability as well. According to the defendant, his first contact with the commander of the fourth military police battalion took place several hours after the Ahmici massacre. Living witnesses say the crime occurred between 5.20 and 7.30am on April 16, 1993. The defendant said he was to assume command of the fourth military police battalion in case of a major attack by the Army of Bosnia- Herzegovina, according to a decision of the HVO chief-of-staff. This order was issued after the defendant notified the HVO headquarters about his estimate that the HVO would not have sufficient manpower to properly defend central Bosnia in case of a major Muslim attack. Blaskic denied knowledge of battles in Ahmici before 11.42am of April 16, 1993. "I had no information about what was going on in the village of Ahmici at that time," he told the tribunal. Asked if he had any reason to suspect that a crime of that proportion could take place, the defendant said "No, because nothing like that had happened until then on central Bosnian territory where I was commander." The indictment contains formulations charging Blaskic with knowing or having had reason to know that his subordinates would commit criminal acts. Blaskic explained today why one of his orders, issued in the night between April 16 and 17, 1993, instructed his forces to not kill civilians "because that is a crime." That order was not based on any knowledge of crimes committed by his subordinates, the defendant said, but on information given him by his assistant Marko Prskalo saying that dead civilians had been seen along the Nova Bila-Vitez road. (hina) ha