BOSNIA HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ADMITS MOSTAR COMMISSION'S FAILURE

MOSTAR, Aug 1 (Hina) - The High Representative to Bosnia- Herzegovina, Paddy Ashdown, admitted on Friday that a commission established on his initiative to draft a statute for the southern city of Mostar had failed. #L# His admission came a day after the expiry of a deadline by which the commission should have tabled the city's statute. Its failure was due to the fact that Bosniak officials of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) had boycotted the commission's work. The SDA disagreed with the proposal of Ashdown's office that Mostar be established as a single administrative district rather than remain divided into six -- three with a Bosniak majority and three predominantly inhabited by Croats. SDA officials received the support of the Bosnian Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party. The commission's failure sends a negative signal to Europe about Bosnia. European countries want to be convinced that Bosnia's elected representatives are capable of solving their own problems, Ashdown said in a statement forwarded to Hina. The high representative stressed the Mostar statute issue would be solved by the end of the year before municipal elections scheduled for 2004. (hina) lml sb