JUDGES CROSS-EXAMINE BLASKIC ABOUT AHMICI CRIME

THE HAGUE, March 13 (Hina) - The testimony of Bosnian Croat General Tihomir Blaskic on launching an investigation into the Ahmici crime prompted the Trial Chamber to cross-examine Blaskic during Thursday and Friday. Such examination carried out by Trial Chamber judges - Claud Jorda, Mohamed Shahabuddeen and Almir Rodrigues - demonstrated that the possible establishment of his alleged responsibility for a failure in the probe and in punishment of perpetrators may be a key element in judges' ruling on declaring Blaskic innocent or guilty. This Bosnian Croat general is accused of having violated the Geneva Conventions, the rules and customs of wars and of crimes against humanity committed in central Bosnia between May 1992 and January 1994. Since February 17 this year when Blaskic began to testify in his own defence, the judges posed some questions just from time to time and did not much interrupt him until Thursday. However, his statement on steps that had been taken after the first reports on the Ahmici case which he had received from the deputy commander of the Bosnian Army Third Corps, Dzemo Merdan, and two days later from a British UN commander, Bob Stewart, prompted the above-mentioned judges to ask direct questions? during Thursday and Friday. The slaughter of one hundred civilians in Ahmici, in the Lasva River Valley (central Bosnia), on April 16, 1993, at the beginning of the Croat-Moslem conflict, is one of the gravest crimes the Prosecution is charging Blaskic with on the principle of commanding responsibility. Five days after the slaughter, at Zenica's meeting of high-ranking officers of the Bosnian Croat Defence Council (HVO) and the (Moslem-led) Bosnian Army, Merdan told angrily Croat representatives that they had killed "hundreds of civilians down there". On April 22, 1993, after touring Ahmici, Stewart notified Blaskic that he had found eight burnt bodies in a house, six of which were corpses of children. The judge Shahabuddeen wanted to know what Blaskic had undertaken to check claims of the Bosnian Army Third Corps deputy commander. Judge Jorda asked the defendant why he had not demanded an inquiry before instead asking SIS (security and information service) on the second day after the crime when he was informed by the British UN commander about the case. He also asked Blaskic why he had not immediately gone to Ahmici on his own. Blaskic answered that he had tried to check immediately Merdan's allegations, and required an investigation from SIS after he had realised that the joint investigating commission, consisting of representatives of the Bosnian Army, HVO and European Monitoring Mission, would not take over the job. He added that he had gone to Ahmici several days later when the military situation on the ground made it possible. Judge Rodrigues asked the defendant when he had suspected for the first time that perpetrators of the Ahmici killing could be members of the military police, while Judge Jorda wanted to know why Blaskic had not immediately required from the military police commander to give an explanation. They also asked whether the fourth military police battalion had been deployed in Ahmici under Blakic's order. They requested Blaskic to asses how much time and how many people would be necessary for the demolition of the village. The defendant said he had immediately become suspicious of the military police, but he had not ask any explanation since the commander (of the military police) had previously forwarded him false reports. The destruction of Ahmici, which he had saw, could be done by a group from 20 to 50 people in a day or two, according to Blaskic's assessment. He later learnt that the crime had been committed in about two hours. Blaskic claimed that after believing that a probe carried out by himself would be pointless, he asked the international community and the HVO leadership to help in the conduct of the inquiry. He said he had expected the logistic support from the international community in the investigation. Furthermore, Blaskic expected from the HVO leadership to put the weight on the problem in order to compensate his commanding powerlessness and not power. Unfortunately, I got no help in the investigation. Nobody helped me, Blaskic said. Judge Jorda asked the defendant why he had not asked for the assistance, for example, from his superior, the HVO chief headquarters' head, Milivoj Petkovic when he had concluded that it would be pointless to order the military police to launch an investigation in its own activities and when he could not go to Ahmici. I asked for help not only from Petkovic but also from all superior authorities, including the supreme commander of the HVO, the defendant answered. Judges Jorda and Rodrigues believed that Blaskic's order to remove corpses from Ahmici was questionable if he had sincerely believed that the investigation should be carried out. Blaskic explained that he had issued such order on the grounds of the joint order of Brigadier Petkovic and the then Bosnian Army's commander Safer Halilovic on keeping the area in hygienic conditions. The three judges wanted to know about the motive for separating out the military police from the commanding chain and placing it under the direct control of the then Herzeg-Bosnian defence ministry in Mostar. I do not know the real motive. I can only guess, Blaskic answered. (hina) ms