BOSNIAN CROATS BLOCK ROAD IN VITEZ AREA

( Editorial: --> 9328 ) VITEZ, Dec 18 (Hina) - NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) troops arrested two Bosnian Croats indicted by the Hague-based war crimes tribunal in two villages in the Vitez area of central Bosnia last night. Anto Furundzija, whose name was on a secret list of indictees, was arrested by special SFOR forces in the village of Mlakici at 1.30 hours on Thursday. Croat police in Vitez said that Furundzija was arrested as he was returning home by car. No arms were used during the arrest. About the same time Vlatko Kupreskic was apprehended in his family home in the village of Santici. Vitez police said the whole village was blocked by a number of combat vehicles and armed SFOR troops, and a local police patrol was not allowed access during the operation. After Kupreskic was arrested and SFOR troops departed, the local police patrol found several traces of blood inside the demolished house. They said that members of the International Police Task Force (IPTF) did not take part in the operation. Kupreskic's wife Ljubica told Hina that about 15 SFOR troops broke into the house via the first-floor balcony and the entrance door, using rifles and explosives. Kupreskic was wounded in the chest and was later taken away, while she was hit on the head by a blunt instrument, handcuffed and taken upstairs where her children -- Igor, aged 10, and Milena, aged 15 -- were sleeping. According to an SFOR officer, Kupreskic was transferred to an SFOR field hospital near Novi Travnik and was not in a life-threatening condition. SFOR spokesman Peter Clark said in Sarajevo that Kupreskic, after receiving medical assistance, was on the way to The Hague, where he was expected to arrive in the early afternoon. Police in Vitez said that SFOR troops returned to the Kupreskic house at 4.00 hours and that they again denied the local police patrol access to the house. "SFOR wants to cover up the traces of its vandalism," Mrs Kupreskic said. "Before they come into the house again, I want this to be recorded by cameras and seen by municipal authorities. Every day Vlatko went from Santici to Vitez and back, so I don't see the justification for him being arrested in such a brutal way." Members of the Croat war veterans' association in Vitez blocked the Busovaca-Vitez-Travnik road in protest at the arrests. Other regional war veterans' organisations issued calls via Vitez radio urging their members to block all roads in the Lasva valley, police said. Police in Vitez later said that 400 civilians blocked the road at two points, with passenger cars and trucks. SFOR troops seized evidence of the violent arrest of Kupreskic from a team of local police investigators led by investigating magistrate Miro Blaz. The evidence included empty bullet shells, a pair of handcuffs and the fuse of an explosive device thrown during the arrest. Local authorities are having a meeting with SFOR and IPTF officials on the situation in the area. (hina) vm jn 181553 MET dec 97