BOSNIAN PRESIDENCY EXPECTS APOLOGY, EXPLANATION FROM KOSTUNICA

SARAJEVO, Sept 14 (Hina) - Bosnia's state Presidency on Saturday slammed Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica's recent statements which bring into question Bosnia's territorial integrity, and decided to ask the Yugoslav authorities for an official position on the matter. #L# Bosnia-Herzegovina's leadership maintains that Kostunica and the vice president of his party with their statements bring into question all the positive results achieved in recent years in the development of Bosnia-Yugoslavia relations, Bosnian Presidency chairman Beriz Belkic told reporters in Sarajevo on Saturday after this body's session. "We are all the more outraged because Kostunica himself, at a recent trilateral meeting of chiefs of state in Sarajevo, clearly assumed the obligation to respect (Bosnia's) territorial integrity and sovereignty," said Belkic. The Bosnian Presidency expects an apology and an explanation from Kostunica, his party, and the Yugoslav authorities, he added. Belkic said that the Presidency at today's session had taken into consideration the explanation Kostunica had subsequently given about the contentious claim, but had opted for a harsh reaction because serious damage had already been done. "The Presidency maintains that it is important to point out that such statements are inadmissible," said Belkic. Last Saturday, as part of his electoral campaign for Serbia's president, Kostunica said in Mali Zvornik, a Serbian border town, that the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska (RS), was only temporarily separated from Serbia. The vice president of Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia, Dragan Marsicanin, later said there was nothing contentious in the wish of Serbs on the two banks of the Drina river to be united. The only contentious point is if and when this can be done, which will depend on "circumstances, the political situation, and the balance of forces," he said. The Bosnian Presidency today debated a RS government report on an investigation conducted in the wake of accusations from the US government that the Bijeljina-based company "Orao" was exporting arms and military equipment to Iraq. Belkic said the Presidency had taken note of the report's claim that no evidence had been found to corroborate such accusations. Documentation from the "Orao" management does not point to cooperation with Iraq, although it is not excluded that one of the companies cooperating with "Orao" may have sold some of its product to Iraq. The investigation is on. Belkic said the US had not notified Bosnia's authorities about concrete evidence which would point to the breach of UN resolutions banning the export of arms and military equipment to Iraq. According to a previously forwarded US government note, "Orao" is suspected of having repaired Iraqi combat aircraft made in Russia. (hina) ha