THE HAGUE, Apr 16 (Hina) - Five days into the trial of Bosnian Croats Dario Kordic and Mario Cerkez at the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, the panel of judges session was open to the public for the first
time on Friday. The Friday witness was witness "C", whose identity and person were protected. He described himself as a member of the Bosnian Muslim people. Kordic, former vice president of the Croat Republic of Herceg-Bosna, and Cerkez, former commander of the Vitez, a town in central Bosnia, brigade, are charged with the systematic persecution of Bosnian Muslims during Bosnia's Croat-Muslim conflict in 1993. Witness "C" said the establishment of the Croat Community of Herceg-Bosna (HZHB) in Novi Travnik, central Bosnia, created a climate of uncertainty, and added the Croat side was responsible for the first armed incident. The residents of Novi Travnik interpreted the establishme
THE HAGUE, Apr 16 (Hina) - Five days into the trial of Bosnian Croats
Dario Kordic and Mario Cerkez at the International Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, the panel of judges session was open
to the public for the first time on Friday.
The Friday witness was witness "C", whose identity and person were
protected. He described himself as a member of the Bosnian Muslim
people.
Kordic, former vice president of the Croat Republic of Herceg-
Bosna, and Cerkez, former commander of the Vitez, a town in central
Bosnia, brigade, are charged with the systematic persecution of
Bosnian Muslims during Bosnia's Croat-Muslim conflict in 1993.
Witness "C" said the establishment of the Croat Community of
Herceg-Bosna (HZHB) in Novi Travnik, central Bosnia, created a
climate of uncertainty, and added the Croat side was responsible
for the first armed incident.
The residents of Novi Travnik interpreted the establishment of the
HZHB as a "signal to the (Muslim-led) Party of Democratic Action
(SDA) that (Bosnia's) Croatian Democratic Union was abandoning its
honest partnership with the SDA," the witness said.
The HZHB was established towards the end of 1991.
According to the witness, the first major armed incident in Novi
Travnik took place on June 19, 1992.
The day before the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) and the
Territorial Defence (TO) set their check-points on entrances to the
town, he said, adding the Croat side also made an ultimatum to the
"Bosnian Muslim side's military component" demanding the
establishment of HZHB authority on the territory of the
municipality and that TO units be placed under the HVO.
The witness said the incident took place around six pm, when he was
attending a meeting with Croat representatives discussing the
ultimatum. The incident lasted four hours, during which time HVO
members crashed the meeting and took two Muslim participants away.
Witness "C" said that unlike other Croat and Muslim participants at
the meeting, two Croat representatives, HVO members, "weren't
surprised by what had started happening around six pm."
Prior to the conflict, the witness, a professor in sociology,
worked at the "Bratstvo" company's staff department. He joined the
TO in May of 1992.
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