SARAJEVO DAILY CLAIMS ANOTHER FIVE CROATS INDICTED FOR WAR CRIMES

SARAJEVO, July 5 (Hina) - The International War Crimes Tribunal's (ICTY) chief prosecutor, Louise Arbour, has signed indictments against another five Bosnian Croats, including the current president of the Mostar branch of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ BiH), Zeljko Djidic, alias Djid, Tuesday's issue of the Sarajevo-based daily "Dnevni Avaz" said. According to the daily which quoted a source within the Office of the international High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina, who asked not to be named, other indictees are Mate Anicic, Edhard Pozic alias Braco Sapa, and another two persons described as members of "SIS". All five are suspected of having committed war crimes in the Mostar area in 1993 (during the Croat-Moslem conflict), and a part of indictments referred to the disappearance of 13 soldiers of the (Moslem-led) Bosnian Army who were captured by the Bosnian Croat Defence Council (HVO) in the building of the "Vranica" company. The television footage of these captured soldiers was broadcast by the Croatian Television (HT). Since then the whereabouts of the soldiers have been unknown and they are still registered as missing persons. A spokeswoman for the UN and the ICTY in the Bosnian capital, Kelly Moore, told the Sarajevo correspondent of Hina that no official indictment had been issued recently. The source quoted by Avaz claimed that the latest indictment against five Croats in Mostar could lead toward key persons accountable for crimes committed in Herzegovina. The daily added that during the war, Djidic's superior was Valentin Coric, the then commander of the HVO military police. "Mostar is one of the biggest free zones for perpetrators of crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and for this reason the entire Federation (the Bosnian Croat-Moslem entity) is suffering," the daily quoted its source as saying. It added that Croatia's former Defence Minister, the late Gojko Susak, tried to avert the attention of the Hague Tribunal from crimes in Herzegovina and focus it on crimes committed in central Bosnia. (hina) ms