SECOND HEARING OF GEN. BLASKIC TO BEGIN IN THE HAGUE ON WEDNESDAY

THE HAGUE, Dec 3 (Hina) - Prosecutors of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), have changed the first indictment of General Tihomir Blaskic who will appear on Wednesday for the second time in the tribunal of first instance in order to plead guilty or not guilty to new charges. The hearing will be public, and after that representatives of defence and prosecution are expected to hold a closed-door meeting with judges to agree on further procedure. Prosecutors have made the request that the beginning of the chief court hearing scheduled for January 8, 1997 may be postponed, but Blaskic's defence have opposed it. General Blaskic, a Bosnian Croat, voluntarily went to The Hague to stand trial. He appeared in tribunal for the first time on April 1, 1996 when he pleaded not-guilty to any charge of the indictment. The International War Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia issued a joint indictment of General Blaskic and other five Bosnian Croats on November 10, 1995. According to the indictment, the six accused are allegedly responsible for "the persecution on political, racial and religious grounds of Bosnian Muslim population," in the Lasva Valley, central Bosnia, between May 1992 and May 1993. In the indictment "by his acts or omissions" the accused Gen. Blaskic is charged with "crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and violations of the laws or customs of war." (hina) mš 032256 MET dec 96