THE HAGUE, March 18 (Hina) - Bosnian Croat Tihomir Blaskic who has been presenting his defence before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) since mid-February, on Thursday spoke about his efforts to
place the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) military police under his command, as complaints were coming from all sides about their conduct. Blaskic said he had in May 1993 intensified efforts to oust the then commander of the military police, Pasko Ljubicic. Blaskic was commander of the Central Bosnia Operative Zone in 1993. He has been charged with violating the Geneva conventions, the right of war and customs, and crimes against humanity, that the troops under his command had committed in the Lasva River valley during Croat-Moslem conflicts. HVO brigades complained about the military police, so did even commanders who they had robbed or physically abused. Complaints about the
THE HAGUE, March 18 (Hina) - Bosnian Croat Tihomir Blaskic who has
been presenting his defence before the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) since mid-February, on
Thursday spoke about his efforts to place the Croatian Defence
Council (HVO) military police under his command, as complaints were
coming from all sides about their conduct.
Blaskic said he had in May 1993 intensified efforts to oust the then
commander of the military police, Pasko Ljubicic.
Blaskic was commander of the Central Bosnia Operative Zone in 1993.
He has been charged with violating the Geneva conventions, the
right of war and customs, and crimes against humanity, that the
troops under his command had committed in the Lasva River valley
during Croat-Moslem conflicts.
HVO brigades complained about the military police, so did even
commanders who they had robbed or physically abused. Complaints
about the military police also came from civilian authorities, the
local parish priest and civilians.
Blaskic said he had forwarded requests for the reorganisation and
dismissal of the military police to Mostar. A reorganisation of the
MP occurred at the beginning of August the same year.
Asked by the president of the panel of judges, Claude Jorde, wheter
Blaskic's requests would be offered as evidence, his defence
attorney Anto Nobilo said the defence had not managed to retrieve
any documents from military police archives or the HVO main
headquarters.
"They remain completely closed for us," Nobilo said.
Blaskic said Thursday that near the end of May, 1993, the mother of
Novi Travnik's mayor, a Croat, had complained that military police
had looted her home and drove off with her cars.
On the same day, Dario Kordic told him Mate Boban, the then Bosnian
Croat leader, had commanded the military police to return the goods
they had stolen from the elderly lady and ordered the dismissal of
the military police commander, Pasko Ljubicic, unless his order is
not carried out.
This is the first time Blaskic has testified Boban had reacted to
the violence of the military police.
Blaskic also said Ljubicic had forwarded him a "cocktail of
curses", following Blaskic's efforts to dismiss him, and
threatened him if he did get dismissed.
At the end of May, Blaskic requested several times that people who
had previous criminal records should be dismissed from the military
police.
There were hundreds of such people and they had no business in the
military police, Blaskic said.
Asked by Nobilo what drew criminals to the military police,,
Blaskic said they could perform their 'work' more effectively as
members of these units.
"It was very tempting to be in the military police, from the
financial aspect," Blaskic said.
These units controlled check points on roads, at which they
demanded tolls.
An increasing problem was also that the military police violently
evicted Moslems from their flats and moved in themselves, while
they sold some apartments, Blaskic said.
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