THE HAGUE, Mar 16 (Hina) - The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague on Tuesday held a closed session which discussed the panel of judges chairman's question regarding the background of a Muslim
massacre in Ahmici at the beginning of the Croat-Muslim conflict in central Bosnia in 1993. The discussion was held at a request made by the defence of Tihomir Blaskic, a Bosnian Croat general accused of the massacre in which some 100 Muslims lost their lives. Judge Claude Jorda asked defence attorneys Russell Hayman and Anto Nobilo whether the defence's claim that the Ahmici massacre had been organised by a military police commander, with interference of structures "above" General Blaskic, was an official claim. Hayman accepted the question with the request to have that part of the session closed to the public. His request was granted. Prior to the closed part of the ses
THE HAGUE, Mar 16 (Hina) - The International Criminal Tribunal for
the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague on Tuesday held a closed session
which discussed the panel of judges chairman's question regarding
the background of a Muslim massacre in Ahmici at the beginning of
the Croat-Muslim conflict in central Bosnia in 1993.
The discussion was held at a request made by the defence of Tihomir
Blaskic, a Bosnian Croat general accused of the massacre in which
some 100 Muslims lost their lives.
Judge Claude Jorda asked defence attorneys Russell Hayman and Anto
Nobilo whether the defence's claim that the Ahmici massacre had
been organised by a military police commander, with interference of
structures "above" General Blaskic, was an official claim.
Hayman accepted the question with the request to have that part of
the session closed to the public. His request was granted.
Prior to the closed part of the session, defendant Blaskic said he
had tried to have the commander of the fourth battalion of the
Croatian Defence Council's military police replaced and to change
the commanding system according to which the military police was
out of his jurisdiction.
Blaskic is testifying in his defence against accusations of
violations of Geneva conventions, the rules and customs of war, and
crimes against humanity committed by his units in a central Bosnia
valley in 1993.
The most serious crime he is charged with on the principle of
commanding responsibility is the Ahmici massacre of April 16,
1993.
Blaskic previously said the fourth battalion of the Croatian
Defence Council military police had attacked the civilians in
Ahmici, and that he had been sent false reports on the situation on
the ground by the battalion's commander, Pasko Ljubic.
"What was that commander's motive, what were the reasons for him to
submit false reports, I don't know," Blaskic said on Tuesday in
response to the judge's request that he explain the reasons behind
Ljubic's false reports.
"I believe (Ljubic) was aware of the tragedy and didn't dare report
to me, or he believed in protecting some authorities more powerful
than myself and closer to him. I really have no other explanation as
to what motivated him to submit false reports," the defendant
said.
Blaskic said that in 1993, several days after learning about the
Ahmici massacre, he told a regular war press conference the
massacre was a crime "organised, planned, and controlled" by
someone.
In answer to a question his attorney Nobilo put several days ago,
Blaskic told The Hague tribunal that as far as he knew, he had been
the only Bosnian Croat who publicly called the Ahmici massacre a
crime.
(hina) ha jn