BOSNIA TO HAVE ITS OWN FORCE TO COMBAT ORGANISED CRIME

SARAJEVO, August 2 (Hina) - Bosnia-Herzegovina will soon have its own special police unit with its only task being to combat organised crime, police officials and representatives of the international community in that country reported on Friday. #L# The international community's High Representative to Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown, told journalists in Sarajevo that 25 best policemen would in September attend special training courses for the battle against the most complicated forms of crime. The future unit for the crackdown on crime would consist of about fifty staff who would act in support to an office with the special state prosecutor and the section for the fight against organised crime, to be set up as a part of Bosnia's Court. The office with the special prosecutor and special Council will probably start functioning at the start of next year, Ashdown said. The NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) chief commander, US General John Sylvester, announced that the training for the Bosnian policemen would be conducted by Italian carabineers who are already included in the Stabilisation Forces. He reminded that the carabineers in Italy were valued particularly for their contribution to in the fight against organised crime. The head of the UN Mission to Bosnia, Jacques Klein, estimated that organised crime is a regional problem, stressing entity, national and religious differences were never a barrier for crime to spread. Trans-national crime is very sophisticated and the fight against it requires exceptional specialists, Klein said. Interior Ministers of the Bosnian Croat-Muslim Federation and the Serb entity, Ramo Maslesa and Dragomir Jovicic respectively, explained that the newly established police section would have the task of fighting the most complicated forms of crime while the existing sections within the interior Ministries in the two entities would deal with other cases. (hina) sp ms