PROSECUTION WITNESS LEACH COMPLETES TESTIMONY IN BLASKIC CASE

THE HAGUE, July 23 (Hina) - Prosecution witness in the Blaskic case before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Simon Leach on Wednesday completed his testimony on the destruction of Muslim houses and mosques in villages of the Vitez and Kiseljak municipalities (central Bosnia-Herzegovina). In the morning, Leach presented photos and video-tapes from villages near Vitez. He described the 1991 composition of the population in those villages and explained their distance from the Vitez Hotel in the town of Vitez, where General Tihomir Blaskic's main command was situated. Gomionica, Behrici, Svinjarevo, Gromiljak, Hercezi, Visnjica, Rotilj, Tulica and Han Ploca, villages in the Kiseljak municipality, and their distance from the HVO (Bosnian Croat armed forces) barracks in the town of Kiseljak were presented and described in the same way. The complete photographic and video material, as well as maps, were included in the Blaskic case court documents. Prosecution witness Leach shall be cross-examined by Blaskic's defense on Friday. Tomorrow there will be no court discussion in the Blaskic case, but a preparatory meeting concerning the trial against Slavko Dokmanovic will take place behind closed doors. It will be held by ICTY trial chamber members Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, Elisabeth Odio-Benito and Saad Saood Jan, prosecution members Grand Nieman and Clint Williamson, and defense members Toma Fila and Jelena Lopicic. A bill of indictment against Dokmanovic, former president of the Vukovar municipal administration, was issued on 26 March 1996. He was arrested on 17 June 1997 in eastern Slavonia and is at the moment detained in The Hague. The date of his trial is as yet undetermined. (hina) ha 232016 MET jul 97