BOSNIAN ARMY OFFICER WANTS TO TESTIFY ON KILLING OF CROATS

( Vidi vijest: 5616 ) SARAJEVO, Oct 24 (Hina) - Ramiz Delalic, former commander of the Bosnian army's ninth mountain brigade, on Friday said he is willing to testify before the Hague tribunal in order to bring to justice those responsible for the September 1993 slaughter of Bosnian Croat civilians in Grabovica, a village in the Neretva river valley north of Mostar. A number of soldiers from Delalic's brigade took part in military operations aimed at breaking the blockade of eastern Mostar in the summer of 1993, Delalic said in an interview with Sarajevo Dani magazine, adding during those actions his soldiers stayed in Grabovica village, where 20 person were killed on 9 September 1993. During that operation, his soldiers were under the command of the Bosnian army's sixth corps, i.e. Zulfikar Alispaga, aka Zuka, Delalic said. He linked the murder of Bosnian Croat civilians with the arrival of about 1,200 Bosniaks (Muslims) from Herzegovina, then just released from being detained by the Croatian Defense Council. "As I was told later", Delalic told Dani, "Vehbija Karic (then member of the Bosnian army's headquarters) added fuel to the flames by telling soldiers while visiting them: 'If anybody disturbs you, act promptly - throw them into the Neretva". Delalic claims the killings of civilians began when local Bosnian Croats refused to give Bosniak refugees food. "One man was then killed, after refusing to give a cow. The soldiers then went from house to house and a massacre took place", Delalic said in the interview. "Directly responsible are those who ordered the soldiers to get into Croat houses and the one who told them to throw (the people) into the water", Delalic told Dani, adding that after the slaughter Alispaga ordered the blockade of Grabovica in order for the crime to remain undiscovered. Delalic claims at the time he notified Safer Halilovic, then the Bosnian army chief-of-staff, and high military police officials about those events. Dani magazine quotes Karic as claiming that Delalic and several of his soldiers, who confirmed Delalic's statements, made "biased statements with which they want to pin the blame on someone else." (hina) ha mm 241905 MET oct 97