TRIAL OF GENERAL BLASKIC TO BEGIN ON TUESDAY

THE HAGUE, June 23 (Hina) - Beginning of the trail of General Tihomir Blaskic is announced for Tuesday, almost 15 months since Blaskic came to The Hague of his own free will. The Hague War Criminal Tribunal (or ICTY) accused this Bosnian Croat of crimes against the humanity, serious breaches of the Geneva convention and war law. The main court hearing will be held before a three-member ICTY Trial Chamber, chaired by a French judge, Claude Jorda. Other two members are an Egyptian judge, Fuad Abdel-Moneim Riad, and a Guinean judge, Mohamed Shahabuddeen. The Prosecution is represented by Mark Harmon, Gregory Kehoe and Andrew Caley, whereas lawyers Anto Nobilo and Russel Hayman will defend Blaskic. It is hard to predict how long the trial will last, and Nobilo expects that it might take from nine to twelve months, according to the ICTY practice. On Monday, a day before the announced beginning of the trial, a closed-door discussion on measures for witnesses' protection was being led at the Court, at the request of the Prosecution. It is about UNHCR workers whose identity the Prosecutor do not want to reveal even to the Defence. The ICTY had already scheduled the beginning of the trial for January 8, 1997, but postponed it at the request of the Prosecutor. General Blaskic, 37, who has been awaiting the trial since April 1, 1996, when he surrendered to the Tribunal of his own free will, has the highest rank among the accused available to the Tribunal. All the time Blaskic waited for the trial, under house arrest, but before the trial, on June 20, he was relocated into the UN custody at Schevening near The Hague. The indictment of Blaskic includes 20 charges, and alleged that Blaskic, being the commander of the first operational zone of the Bosnian Croat (HVO) forces in central Bosnia, was responsible for persecution of the civilian Moslem population in the Lasva valley on the political, racial and religious grounds by his acts or omissions. The indictment also said that at the time when Blaskic allegedly committed crimes, a conflict of the international character took place in Bosnia, and, thus, Croatia is directly blamed for aggression against the neighbouring country. Such description of the conflict is necessary for the Prosecution, as serious violations of the Geneva convention could be included into an indictment, according to the ICTY statute, only if there was an international conflict. In case that the Trail Chamber says that there was only internal conflict in Bosnia at that time, six charges from the indictment must be erased. (hina) jn mš 232210 MET jun 97