ECONOMIC COUNCIL OF CROAT SELF-RULE ESTABLISHED

MOSTAR, April 11 (Hina) - An economic council of the Croat self-rule was established in Mostar on Wednesday. The council is an advisory body of the self-rule which the Croat National Assembly (led by the HDZ BiH political party) set up in Croat-populated area of the Federation and which the international community labels as illegal parallel bodies of authority. Present at the establishments of the council were some 450 business people from five cantons in the Croat-Muslim Federation of Bosnia- Herzegovina. The council's chairman, Zlatan Istvanic, told reporters that business people were suffering great losses owing to the discontinuation of the payment operations, caused by a recent action of High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch who appointed the transitional administration in Hercegovacka Banka, seen by foreign diplomats as the financial backbone of the Croat-self rule. The business people who gathered today in Mostar called on individuals and companies in the area of the self-rule to fulfill their taxation and financial obligations completely and to take austerity measures as well. Istvanic said a three-month-long budget of the self-rule would come to 25 million German marks, and announced short-term measures for the normal functioning of the economy in the said area. (hina) ms