CHARGES PRESSED AGAINST SEVERAL BOSNIAN CROAT LEADERS

SARAJEVO, May 15 (Hina) - The defence ministry of one of Bosnia's entities, the Croat-Muslim federation, on Tuesday pressed charges against the formerly most prominent political and military officials from the Bosnian Croat people. The ministry says in a statement delivered to Hina in Sarajevo that charges have been pressed against former Bosnian Presidency member Ante Jelavic, former federal defence Minister Miroslav Prce, and the former deputy commander of the federal army, Lt. Col. Dragan Curcic. The three are charged as being accountable for the subversion of the federation's military and defence power, an act punishable under the federal penal code. They are also charged with the illegal dissolving of the federal army's Croat component. A decision to that end was made after the Croatian Democratic Union party refused to recognise the new federal government, which is made up of ten parties of the Alliance for Changes. All charges have been forwarded to the federal prosecutor's office, which has to decide on what to do next. A spokesman for NATO's peace-keepers in Bosnia, the Stabilisation Force (SFOR), Lars Anderson, on Tuesday reiterated the SFOR's full support to the activities of the federal defence ministry. Commenting on recent attempts to line up the members of the dissolved federal army, he said they failed and stressed that anyone outside of Bosnia's legal bodies of authority must realise they were bringing themselves into the position of being treated as members of an illegal militia. Anderson confirmed the SFOR had been informed about threats from the federal army's former Croat officials, and said they would account if they were to undertake any violent actions. (hina) ha