KLEIN REGRETS HOW HIS STATEMENTS HAVE BEEN INTERPRETED

SARAJEVO, Feb 7 (Hina) - The head of the UN Mission to Bosnia, Jacques Klein, has regretted the way in which his statements about the situation in the country, recently given to Croatian Television, have been interpreted. Ambassador Klein has forwarded a letter to the chairman of the Bosnian Council of Ministers, Zlatko Lagumdzija, in connection with the matter, stating it is regrettable that some officials decided to comment on private statements instead of concentrating on the resolving of Bosnia's real problems, UN Mission spokesman Stefo Lehmann said on Thursday. Confirming that Klein's letter to Lagumdzija ensued at the urging of the United Nations seat in New York, Lehmann said Klein firmly believed that Bosnia and Herzegovina's sovereignty and independence could not be brought into question in any way. Explaining what he meant when he said that in history Bosnia had never been a state, Klein in the letter quoted Winston Churchill's claim that there was more history in the Balkans than could be digested. Klein also believes Bosnia's citizens have many other reasons to worry at a time of mass unemployment, empty budgets, and weary donors, said Lehmann. (hina) ha