HEARING OF ZLATKO ALEKSOVSKI BEGINS AT ICTY

( Editorial: --> 2609,2625 ) THE HAGUE, 6 Jan (Hina) - The main hearing in the trial of Zlatko Aleksovski before the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) started on Tuesday in The Hague. The hearing started with an introductory speech by ICTY prosecutor Grant Niemann. Aleksovski is charged with severe violations of the Geneva Conventions and the customs and law of war, as well as with illegal treatment of Muslim prisoners in the Kaonik prison near Busovaca, central Bosnia. Aleksovski was the head of the Kaonik prison between January and May 1993. We will prove that Zlatko Aleksovski knew of but did not do anything to prevent the violations and punish the perpetrators and that he himself was involved in some cases of maltreatment, said Niemann. Aleksovski is one of the indictees in the case of "Kordić and others", opened on 10 November 1995. Other indictees in that case were Tihomir Blaškić, who has since been indicteed separately,Ivan Šantić and Pero Skopljak, who were acquitted on 19 December for lack of evidence. Other indictees in the case are Dario Kordić and Mario Čerkez. Zlatko Aleksovski is being tried separately from other indictees, considering that he has long been waiting for the trial, he has been held in ICTY's custody since 28 April 1997. Prosecutor spoke in detail about international armed conflicts, considering that the charges for violations of the Geneva Convention concern such conflicts. He added that Article 3 calls for protection of civilians even in non-international conflicts and that some of the people present in Kaonik were civilians. Niemann said that the prosecution would prove that the Croat- Bosniac conflict in BH was an international one. He said that the prisoners in Kaonik were protected persons associated with the Bosniac side and that the perpetrators were associated with the other side in an international conflict,"that is to say, with the authorities of Bosnian Croats under Croatia's control". On the first day of the trial Zlatko Aleksovski's defence asked the judicial council of the International War Crime Tribunal in The Hague to grant temporary release of the indictee from custody. In the opening of his speech defence attorney Goran Mikuličić objected that the charges were vague and stresed he hoped that during the trial they would be specified or dropped. The defence reserved the right to make its opening remarks after the hearing of the prosecution witnesses and before the hearing of the defence witnesses. Attorney Srđan Joka, an assistant to defence attorney Goran Mikuličić, said that the request for temporary release from custody was based on the fact that Aleksovski had been in custody for 582 days and that the scope of the charges indicated that he had played a "marginal role" in the develpments that took place in central Bosnia in 1993. He noted tha Aleksovski had been arrested by the Croatian police on 6 June 1996 on ICTY's charges. Joka said that four conditions for realease from custody had been met: overlong custody, bad health, the fact that his entire family, including two small children, lives on his ill mother's pension and his exemplary behaviour in custody. If Aleksovski was allowed to stay in Croatia,Croatia would guarantee that he would appear at the Tribunal, said Joka. Zlatko Aleksovski was born on 8 January 1960 in Pakrac, Croatia,attended elementary and high school in Zenica (central Bosnia) and graduated from the Sociology Department of the Sarajevo University. From 1987 to 1993 he worked as an educator at the Zenica prison. On 8 June 1996 he was arrested in Split by the Croatian police and on 28 April 1997 he was handed over to ICTY. 061929 MET jan 98