ASHDOWN'S DECISION DRAWS CONTRADICTORY REACTIONS

MOSTAR, Jan 29(Hina) - The decision of High Representative Paddy Ashdown to impose a statute reorganising Mostar has drawn contradictory reactions from Croat and Muslim politicians in this city in the south of Bosnia-Herzegovina.#L# The head of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina (HDZ BiH) in Mostar, Josip Merdzo, voiced dissatisfaction with the ethnic composition of the new City Council. Under Ashdown's decision, the City Council will have 35 members, of whom 15 will be Croats, 15 Muslims, four Serbs and one a member of other ethnic groups. Merdzo believes that such distribution of seats is undemocratic because Croats make up 60 percent of the entire city electorate and hold 42 percent of seats in the City Council. Zijad Hadziomerovic, head of Mostar's former Old City district with the majority Muslim population and member of the Party of Democratic Action's (SDA) presidency, said his party considered the solution bad. "From now into the eternity the mayor of Mostar will be a Croat, which is devastating for this city and civilisation in Bosnia-Herzegovina in general," Hadziomerovic said in a comment on Ashdown's decision. A former mayor and former SDA official and now prominent member of the Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina, Safet Orucevic, considers Ashdown's decision good. Orucevic hopes that all well-meaning politicians in Bosnia will implement Ashdown's solution for Mostar. "Ashdown's proposal makes Mostar a special case for the time being, but this is an open invitation to all politicians in the country to apply this solution to other multiethnic towns and reintroduce and protect the rights of all peoples," he said. Ashdown's decision abolished the city's six districts (of which three had the majority Croat population and the other three the majority Muslim population), transforming them into six electoral units. (Hina) rml sb