SOLJIC EXPRESSES SATISFACTION WITH STATE OF ICTY PRISONERS

( Editorial: --> 4649 ) ZAGREB/THE HAGUE, Aug 19 (Hina) - A delegation of Bosnian Croats lead by Bosnian Federation Vice-President Vladimir Soljic visited The Hague on Wednesday for talks with officials and detainees at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). In a telephone interview with Hina, Soljic said that during the visit he spoke with detainees at the Scheweningen prison whose trials were not in progress - Tihomir Blaskic, Dario Kordic, Mario Cerkez, Anto Furundzija and Zlatko Aleksovski. "We were impressed with their psychological and physical stability and this is evidence that they believe in a good and just outcome in their processes," the Bosnian Federation Vice-President said. "We spoke with the detainees for a long time," Soljic said, emphasising that they had "discussed everything that was happening and what was and was not related to their problems". "They are behaving as if they will come home tomorrow," Soljic added. However, the deputy chief of Bosnia's Muslim-Croat entity emphasised that the prisoners and the delegation were not satisfied with the fact that the process was lasting too long. "This especially relates to Kordic and Cerkez against whom indictments have still not been raised," Soljic said. He added that it was "illogical that the indictments for Kordic and Blaskic were linked, even though their cases have no relation". Apart from the prisoners, the Bosnian Croat delegation also met ICTY president Gabrielle Kirk McDonald and chief prosecutor Louise Arbour. "We believe the visit was useful and that we will certainly have positive results from it," Soljic said. ICTY spokesman Christian Chartier confirmed that the meetings took place, but was not able to comment on their themes. At the beginning of the visit it was announced that the main theme of talks with ICTY officials would be the insufficient efforts of the Hague tribunal in investigating and launching proceedings for crimes committed against Bosnian Croats. Soljic was to have given the ICTY a list of massacres which had been documentated, but had not been used by the war crimes tribunal. Despite an earlier announcement, a meeting with the so-called Vitez group, whose process started on Monday, did not take place because of "technical difficulties". "Detainees from the 'Kupresic and others' list had their processes finish earlier today, but we were unable to visit them, so we spoke with their lawyers," Soljic said. He said the lawyers were satisfied with the current progress of the trial because they believed that "it had become clear to everyone that that some of the witnesses were briefed for a false testimony". "The situation is not bad overall," the Bosnian Federation Vice- President said. (Hina) mbr /jfk 192200 MET aug 98