PLOCE COUNCIL AGAINST RATIFICATION OF DEAL ON TRANSIT THROUGH PORT

PLOCE, April 10 (Hina) - The town council of the southern Croatian port of Ploce on Thursday adopted a declaration voicing disagreement with the ratification of a Croatian-Bosnian agreement on free transit through Croatia's territory at Ploce and through Bosnia's territory at Neum. #L# The councillors stated that the agreement was detrimental to the development of the entire Neretva River region and opposed making transit through Bosnia's Neum conditional on access to the Ploce port. The councillors believe the agreement should be defined on commercial bases and request government and parliament to urgently withdraw from procedure the adoption of a law confirming the agreement. The government and Foreign Ministry have been informed in detail about the stand of Dubrovnik-Neretva County and the town of Ploce towards the agreement, said an official of the ministry, Filip Vucak. Vucak said the agreement had been signed under international pressures, which was evident from one of its articles (The agreement was signed in Zagreb in 1998. The Bosnian parliament has ratified it, while the Croatian Sabor has not yet due to a provision in Article 9 under which a commission supervising the Ploce port would include three Croatian and three Bosnian members, while the seventh member would be an international official). The declaration of the Ploce town council has been endorsed by Dubrovnik County prefect Ivan Sprlje, county councillors, representatives of the towns of Opuzen and Metkovic, officials of the Ploce port, and the port's workers union. The Dubrovnik-Neretva County Assembly on April 7 unanimously endorsed a declaration opposing the ratification of the said treaty. (hina) rml