BOSNIAKS REQUEST SUPERVISOR FOR STOLAC

MOSTAR, Oct 26 (Hina) - Bosniak officials in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton bodies of authority have assessed that Stolac is one of the most problematic sections of the Croat-Moslem entity of the Bosnian Federation, where the situation has not normalised. They have requested a supervisor for the southern Bosnian town. In a letter signed by the canton prefect, Sefkija Dziho, to the international High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Wolfgang Petritsch, the Bosniak (Moslem) officials requested an international supervisor be appointed for Stolac. According to the 1991 census, Bosniaks, with 44 percent, made up for the majority of the population. Croats were second with 33 percent of the total population, Serbs 21, and others two percent. Dziho claims that the current employee structure in local municipal services does not reflect the ethnic structure of the population according to the 1991 census. During Moslem-Croat conflicts in the 1990s in Bosnia-Herzegovina, almost all Bosniaks from Stolac abandoned their homes. According to Moslem sources, about 50 percent of the pre-war Bosniak population has returned. Croat institutions have counted between 3,000 and 4,000 Croat refugees from Central Bosnia in Stolac. Many of them are requesting transference to countries overseas. Two new settlements have been built in the municipality to accommodate the Central Bosnian Croat refugees, called after two senior HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union party) officials active during the Homeland war. (hina) lml sb