MOSTAR EXPLOSION IS PROBABLY NOT LINKED WITH 'PARNI VALJAK' CONCERT

MOSTAR, June 7 (Hina) - Stefo Lehmann, spokesman for the U.N. Office in Mostar, on Wednesday expressed regret over an explosion which occurred on Tuesday night in Mostar, near the location where the Croatian rock group 'Parni valjak' was holding a concert. Speaking to reporters in Mostar, Lehmann said the explosion was caused by a shell, fired from Brkanovo Brdo in western Mostar, which landed near the Masline cemetery, also in western Mostar, one kilometre from the location on the Boulevard road where the concert was being held. Lehmann said it was to early to say that the concert had been the target. So far there have been no indications that the two events are connected, he added. According to Lehmann, Stabilisation Force (SFOR) and International Police Task Force (ICTY) have difficulty accessing the site of the explosion because the area where the shell landed is mined. Lehman commended Herzegovina-Neretva Canton police for their professional work before, during and after last night's concert. The concert on the Boulevard road, the former front line, showed that genuine normalisation was beginning to develop in Mostar, he said. Expressing satisfaction with last night's concert, the spokeswoman for the regional Office of the High Representative (OHR), Avis Benes, said it was an example that people in Mostar were hungry for normal living and normal events. Bernard Vrban, spokesman for the OSCE Office in Mostar, said last night's event was something a united Mostar could be built on. (hina) jn rml