SARAJEVO, July 4 (Hina) - The head of the United Nations' mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jacques Klein, has never talked with Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic on the establishment of a military unit which may include troops from
Croatia, said a spokesman for the UN mission, Douglas Coffman, in Sarajevo on Tuesday. Klein wants to make his stand on this issue completely clear and that's why he has responded to many media reports and commentaries about a possible set-up of a regional unit which may include troops from countries in the area of the former Yugoslavia. Ambassador Klein would like to convince the public in Bosnia that he has never advocated the participation of soldiers from this country in peace missions, as a part of the composition of regional units which might include troops from another countries in ex-Yugoslavia, Coffman said and stressed that Serbia particularly could not take part i
SARAJEVO, July 4 (Hina) - The head of the United Nations' mission to
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jacques Klein, has never talked with Croatia's
President Stjepan Mesic on the establishment of a military unit
which may include troops from Croatia, said a spokesman for the UN
mission, Douglas Coffman, in Sarajevo on Tuesday.
Klein wants to make his stand on this issue completely clear and
that's why he has responded to many media reports and commentaries
about a possible set-up of a regional unit which may include troops
from countries in the area of the former Yugoslavia.
Ambassador Klein would like to convince the public in Bosnia that he
has never advocated the participation of soldiers from this country
in peace missions, as a part of the composition of regional units
which might include troops from another countries in ex-
Yugoslavia, Coffman said and stressed that Serbia particularly
could not take part in such units as long as it is not integrated in
the western community of nations.
Ambassador Klein definitely has not discussed this matter with
Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, the UN spokesman emphasised.
Commenting on the reason why such media reports have appeared,
Coffman said that at a recent session of the Standing Committee for
Military Matter (SCMM) in Bosnia, a military advisor to the UN
mission in Bosnia had mentioned such a possibility only when the
entire region underwent the process of democratisation and
relations improved.
Klein's personal stand is that local Bosnian police forces could
participate in UN missions, or that unarmed military observers from
this country could perform similar tasks or that a Bosnian unit be
established to carry out logistic tasks.
A group of Bosnian policemen has already deployed in the UN peace
mission in East Timor, and SCMM considers the deployment of
military observers in similar missions in the course of this year.
(hina) ms