CROATIAN, YUGOSLAV, BOSNIAN INTERIOR MINISTERS HOLD MEETING

ZAGREB, Feb 4 (Hina) - The Interior ministers of Croatia, Yugoslavia, the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska have to cooperate in a struggle against organised crime, particularly by an accelerated exchange of information, Croatian Interior Minister Sime Lucin said in Zagreb Monday. Next to Lucin, who opened the ministerial meeting, present were his counterparts from Yugoslavia, Zoran Zivkovic, the BH Federation, Ramo Maslesa, Dragomir Jovicic from the Republika Srpska, the Bosnian State Border Service director, Tomislav Mihalj, and the coordinator and senior advisor for the police issues with the UN mission in Bosnia, Robert Gravell. The board of interior ministers was established on the initiative of the UN mission in Bosnia last year in Sarajevo, in order to establish the coordination of police activities in areas which equally burden all countries in the region, such as illegal migrations, international organised crime, drug people smuggling and the struggle against terrorism. For this purpose, the board has formed a task force of police experts which implements board's decisions, and which, since the establishment of the task force, have established concrete measures for cooperation and theme meetings on specific kinds of crime, Lucin said. Today's meeting was also an opportunity for acquainting UN mission to Bosnia representative Robert Gravell with concrete needs of the four countries' police forces, particularly in the area of technical equipment, in which the police are much behind the criminals. The board and such meetings aim at enabling safer life to the citizens of Croatia, Bosnia and Yugoslavia, because "the criminals from these countries cooperated well all this time and had no international and inter-religious problems", Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic told reporters. (hina) np sb