CROATIA MUST BE PREPARED FOR COMMENTS ABOUT ITS SITUATION - OHR

SARAJEVO, Jan 17 (Hina) - The High Representative to Bosnia- Herzegovina applauds any constructive solution in the upcoming constitutional changes in the country whose neighbours have also been called on to participate in discussion on the issue, High Representative Woflgang Petritsch's spokesman in Sarajevo, Kevin Sullivan, said on Thursday. Commenting on the fact that Petritsch's statements that Croatia could also introduce a House of Peoples into its parliament, such as the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska has, gave rise to numerous expressions of disapproval among Croatian officials, Sullivan said that in such discussions one must be prepared for a two-way communication. If something is being suggested as a solution for Bosnia- Herzegovina, then there must be readiness for it to be accepted in one's own country, the spokesman for the Office of the High Representative (OHR) told a news conference. Sullivan refused to equalise an earlier statement made by Petritsch that the status of Serbs in Croatia could be regulated in a better manner, for example by introducing a House of Peoples, to putting together apples and oranges, as was commented by reporters since the discussion involves the status of Serbs as a national minority in Croatia and Croats as a constitutive people in Bosnia- Herzegovina. This is not putting together apples and oranges, but respecting certain principles, Sullivan said. He stressed that nobody, not even Petritsch had, in this case, made any parallels between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. He, however, added, that one must be prepared for comments on the situation in one's own environment, since suggestions about how it should be somewhere else were being made anyhow. Petritsch's spokesman described the current situation regarding constitutional changes in Bosnia as a discussion on an optimal way of implementing the decision of the Bosnian Constitutional Court on all three peoples in the entire country's territory being constitutive. He, however, failed to state whether the introduction of the House of Peoples in Republika Srpska was something the OHR would insist on. (hina) lml