STEWART SAYS BLASKIC MUST HAVE KNOWN OF AHMICI ATTACK PLAN

THE HAGUE, June 18 (Hina) - British Lt. Col. Robert Stewart on Friday told the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague Bosnian Croat war crimes suspect Tihomir Blaskic must have known about a plan on the attack on Ahmici, a central Bosnian village in which some 100 Muslim civilians were killed on April 16, 1993. Blaskic must have known in advance about the Ahmici operation, Stewart said, but added he hoped the defendant did not know about the massacre. Stewart, a retired officer in the British army, on Thursday began his testimony as the sixth witness The Hague tribunal summoned in the trial of Blaskic, former commander of Operative Zone Central Bosnia accused of crimes his units committed in Lasva Valley in central Bosnia in 1993, during the Croat-Muslim conflict. In 1993, Stewart commanded a British UNPROFOR battalion which that April discovered the Muslim massacre in Ahmici, the most serious crime Blaskic is charged with. According to Stewart, it is inconceivable for a commander to not know about what his soldiers have done. The British officer said he was on a road near Ahmici in the morning hours of the day the crime took place. There he came across a group of upset Croatian Defence Council (HVO) soldiers who made it clear he was persona non grata. Stewart could not say however whether they were HVO soldiers or military police. Blaskic's defence claims the crime was committed by the military police, then commanded by Pasko Ljubicic, and not Blaskic. Stewart said the HVO was far from a professional army, from the commanding structure to the equipment. Despite this, the British officer believed Blaskic was its real commander. (hina) ha jn