NEGOTIATIONS ON SUCCESSION TO EX-YUGOSLAVIA BEGIN IN VIENNA

VIENNA, May 14 (Hina) - The international high representative for Bosnia opened in Vienna on Monday a new, two-week round of negotiations on succession to the former Yugoslav federation, wishing the participants success but also urging them to make compromises in finding a solution.#L# Not one country can go home as a winner in all issues, High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch said in Hofburg castle, seat of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Through compromise and negotiations you will bring the countries and the nations you represent closer to Europe, he told the successors. Sir Arthur Watts, an international mediator in succession issues, told reporters the latest negotiating round would tackle the division of real estate and movable property in the five states established after the early 1990s break-up of the ex-Yugoslavia, as well as the division of diplomatic offices abroad, the central archives, finances, and pensions for members of the former federal army and civilians who worked in federal institutions. The head of the Croatian delegation, Bozo Marendic, told Hina last week the negotiations would attempt to harmonise and adopt a general succession agreement which should represent a political and legal framework for reaching solutions in the division. The first concrete results in connection with the succession were reached at last month's negotiations in Brussels, when the successors agreed on the division of ex-Yugoslavia assets stored in the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements. The closed-door Vienna round should wrap on May 25 when Sir Watts should hold a briefing for the press. (hina) ha