MOSTAR, July 24 (Hina) - Premier of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (within the Croat-Muslim Bosnian Federation), Josip Merdzo, and this canton's deputy prefect Dragan Vrankic, on Tuesday refused to meet the Federation's President
Karlo Filipovic, and Vice-President Safet Halilovic, who were elected to these posts as candidates of the Alliance for Changes. Filipovic and Halilovic paid an official visit to Mostar for the first time on Tuesday, when they met local Muslim officials and Colin Munro, the head of the branch office of the international High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Merdzo and Vrankic said the reason for his boycott of the meeting was the federal officials' biased behaviour in favour of Muslim structures in the said canton. They claimed that the federal government had granted 1.8 million German marks to the Muslim-populated areas of the canton but refuted to help Croat areas. Filip
MOSTAR, July 24 (Hina) - Premier of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton
(within the Croat-Muslim Bosnian Federation), Josip Merdzo, and
this canton's deputy prefect Dragan Vrankic, on Tuesday refused to
meet the Federation's President Karlo Filipovic, and Vice-
President Safet Halilovic, who were elected to these posts as
candidates of the Alliance for Changes.
Filipovic and Halilovic paid an official visit to Mostar for the
first time on Tuesday, when they met local Muslim officials and
Colin Munro, the head of the branch office of the international High
Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Merdzo and Vrankic said the reason for his boycott of the meeting
was the federal officials' biased behaviour in favour of Muslim
structures in the said canton.
They claimed that the federal government had granted 1.8 million
German marks to the Muslim-populated areas of the canton but
refuted to help Croat areas.
Filipovic described the conduct of the Merdzo and Vrankic as
unfair. The Federation's President believes that the two fell prey
to the pressure of the political party HDZ BiH.
In Mostar, however, Filipovic met the deputy mayor of this southern
city, Neven Tomic, regarded to be a moderate representative of the
Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia (HDZ BiH). Tomic's replacement
has recently been asked by the Mostar branch of the HDZ BiH.
The federal leaders called on cantonal authorities to dissolve
paralel institutions and to set up a joint cantonal budget.
HDZ leader Ante Jelavic has recently opposed the idea of the
establishment of a single cantonal budget.
(hina) sb ms