BLASKIC'S DEFENCE SATISFIED WITH EXAMINATION OF WITNESS PAJIC

ZAGREB, July 3 (Hina) - A two-day cross-examination of the Prosecution witness, Zoran Pajic, for the case of Bosnian Croat General Blaskic ended in The Hague on Thursday in the way that statements of that thoroughly prepared witness, very important for the Prosecution, confirmed "everything important for the Defence," the lawyer of the Defence, Anto Nobilo said to Hina. The other lawyer of the Defence, Russell Hayman, showed articles of Pajic, published in the New York Times, the Washington Post and other world newspapers during 1993 in which this professor wrote that the Bosnian army began to organise when the war had already been escalating. Pajic agreed with this statement on Thursday's questioning. This substantiated the claim of the Defence that the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina did nothing to protect citizens of the country against the Serb aggression, and that the basic reason for establishment of the Croat community of Herzeg-Bosnia (or HZ HB) was the imperil the Croat people was facing and its right to self-defence, Nobilo said. After one of his articles of 1993 was presented, the witness also confirmed that the policy of (Moslem) Alija Izetbegovic, just as polices of other leaders in Bosnia, had contributed to national polarisation in the country, he added. In the past two days the Defence achieved some other important admissions opposite to initial statements of this witness, the Croatian lawyer said. "Pajic has accepted our thesis that the HZ HB was ruled by the civilian structure and not by the military structure, and, in this way, the responsibility does not lie with Gen. Blaskic, as a soldier, for everything that happened at the military and civilian level in the Central Bosnia operational zone," Nobilo said. Furthermore, the Defence denied Pajic's initial claim on the effective legal functioning of Herzeg-Bosnia and on the determined hierarchy of authority. The trial of Tihomir Blaskic continues on July 21. (hina) mm mš 031930 MET jul 97