THE HAGUE, May 4 (Hina) - The trial of Bosnian Croat general Tihomir Blaskic resumed at The Hague International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on Tuesday after a two-week recess, with the prosecution's cross-examination of the
defendant. Blaskic is being tried for crimes his forces committed in central Bosnia during the Croat-Muslim 1993 conflict. The defendant told the tribunal he would never agree to take part in the realisation of the "Greater Croatia" idea on Bosnian territory. "I would never implement such a platform in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BH)," Blaskic said in response to the panel of judges query about his political beliefs at the time of the Croat-Muslim conflict in BH and his role in the realisation of Bosnian Croat political goals. "I had not been called to BH for a project of that kind, but to help in the defence," the defendant said, adding he had never received an order by Bosnian Croat political
THE HAGUE, May 4 (Hina) - The trial of Bosnian Croat general Tihomir
Blaskic resumed at The Hague International Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia on Tuesday after a two-week recess, with the
prosecution's cross-examination of the defendant.
Blaskic is being tried for crimes his forces committed in central
Bosnia during the Croat-Muslim 1993 conflict.
The defendant told the tribunal he would never agree to take part in
the realisation of the "Greater Croatia" idea on Bosnian
territory.
"I would never implement such a platform in Bosnia-Herzegovina
(BH)," Blaskic said in response to the panel of judges query about
his political beliefs at the time of the Croat-Muslim conflict in BH
and his role in the realisation of Bosnian Croat political goals.
"I had not been called to BH for a project of that kind, but to help in
the defence," the defendant said, adding he had never received an
order by Bosnian Croat political leaders the aim of which would be
unification with Croatia.
"I had not been asked to implement a political platform either at
the time of my appointment or later," he said. "I had been told my
task was of a military and expert character - to arrange the
defence."
Blaskic refuted any possibility of his participation in the policy
of ethnic cleansing.
Asked by Judge Muhamed Sahabuddeen if he would ever agree to orders
to carry out ethnic cleansing, the defendant said, "I had never had
the opportunity to carry out the task of ethnic cleansing, because I
had never been given (the order), and if I had, I would never have
carried it out."
"Every good soldier should be a sensible soldier and able to
recognise such orders," Blaskic said.
Despite the judge's and prosecutor's insistence to say if Bosnian
Croat leaders Mate Boban and Dario Kordic advocated the separation
of Croat territories in BH and their annexation to Croatia, the
defendant avoided to define the two leaders' political views in
those words.
Blaskic said the two leaders' vision consisted in the establishment
of a Croat community, "but not at BH's expense."
The defendant said he had not taken part in drafting a Bosnian Croat
platform for the realisation of the "centuries-old Croatian dream"
of a common state for all Croats.
"I did not participate in drafting the political platform, nor did I
implement the political platform," Blaskic said.
He also stated he did not know whether the Bosnian Croat leadership,
which in November 1991 set as a goal the proclamation of the so
called Banovina Croatia, had retained such ideas in the following
years.
"I had agreed to come to BH to offer expert assistance in the defence
against the aggression" of Serbian forces, the defendant said, and
explained the Bosnian Croat leadership's idea was the organisation
of a depoliticised military force.
Therefore, he said, his statement during meetings with associates
was, "politics is not the preoccupation of us soldiers."
Blaskic also said he had never been a member of the Croatian
Democratic Union of BH, the largest Bosnian Croat party.
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