BOSNIAN SERBS MUST EXPLAIN TRADE WITH IRAQ BY JANUARY 3

SARAJEVO, Dec 5 (Hina) - Dissatisfied with the results of a probe into transactions between the Bosnian Serb Orao aviation company and Iraq, international organisations active in Bosnia have decided to monitor the further course of the investigation, an international official said in Sarajevo on Thursday. #L# Top international officials in Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday sent a letter to the Bosnian Serb entity's President Dragan Cavic, informing him that NATO's Stabilisation Force (SFOR) would control the probe into the Orao affair and that it must be completed by January 3, the spokesman for the office of the High Representative to Bosnia, Julian Braithwaite, told reporters. He said Cavic had been told clearly that the international community was angry at the attempts that had been made to obstruct the investigation and politicise it, for which he accused the Bosnian Serb authorities. Several questions need to be answered, Braithwaite said, namely who approved the breach of U.N. sanctions, who approved trips to Iraq and who went there, who allowed Iraqis to enter Bosnia, who were these people and what were they doing in Bosnia. The Bosnian Serb authorities also have to explain what defence minister Slobodan Bilic and the Bosnian Serb army's chief-of- staff, Novica Simic, both of whom have tendered their resignations but deny any liability for the scandal, were doing in Myanmar, another state under international sanctions. The international community was also very dissatisfied with evident attempts which were made to downplay the entire affair, in which Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic led the way. The entity's authorities will have to explain why a report was compiled in September claiming there had been no illegal transactions with Iraq. (hina) ha