BIHAC COURT BEGINS TRIAL OF FIKRET ABDIC

SARAJEVO, Sept 4 (Hina) - A higher court in the northwestern Bosnian town of Bihac started proceedings on Wednesday against a former member of the Bosnian Presidency, Fikret Abdic. Abdic was charged with "war crimes against the civilian population and prisoners of war, committed between 16 November 1994 and 7 August 1995 when he held the office of the president of the so-called Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia and the commander of the so-called Popular Defence of Western Bosnia," Sarajevo radio said. The radio quoted the indictment as saying that Abdic had illegaly established the autonomous province and paramilitary forces which later cooperated with breakaway Bosnian and Croatian Serb forces. The public prosecutor of the Bihac court charged Abdic with setting up camps and detention centres in the villages of Drmaljevo, Dolovi, Rasetin Zid, Dubrave, Ponikve and Brezice where more than 5,000 civilians had been held. During the investigation, witnesses said that four detainees had died in those camps because of maltreatment. Abdic, who is being tried in absence, was also suspected of ordering shelling attacks on civilian targets, which left 124 people killed and 345 wounded. In November 1994 he allegedly signed a document banning the passage of all humanitarian convoys towards Bihac, which was under Sarajevo government control during the war. The prosecutor said that the evidence was partly based on reports by the former UN special rapporteur on human rights, Tadeusz Mazowiecki. (hina) vm 042102 MET sep 96