MESIC: BOSNIAN CROATS WILL CONTINUE TO BE ASSISTED THROUGH STATE INSTITUTIONS

SARAJEVO, Dec 4 (Hina) - Croatia wants to assist Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croats living there, but it will do so exclusively through the institutions of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said in an interview with the FENA news agency of Bosnia's Croat-Muslim entity ahead of his visit to Sarajevo on Thursday. #L# "We definitely want to help all Croats living outside Croatia, including those in Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, everything that will be done in that regard will have to be transparent and will not be done outside the institutions of Bosnia-Herzegovina. That is why I think that anyone having illusions that something will change in that regard is wrong," said Mesic in the interview carried by the Bosnian press. Mesic announced a session of the Croatian-Bosnian cooperation council, which is to meet in Sarajevo on Friday. Mesic said he believed that Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina had to be recognised as a constituent nation in that country, and not be viewed as emigrants, and in that context welcomed the decision of the President of the Bosnian Presidency, Dragan Covic, not to vote in recent parliamentary elections in Croatia. (hina) rml