RECONSTRUCTED BRIDGE BETWEEN CROATIA, BOSNIA REOPENED

GUNJA, Oct 25 (Hina) - After four months of reconstruction, a road bridge across the Sava river between Gunja in Croatia and Brcko in Bosnia was opened for traffic on Wednesday. The European Union invested EUR1.6 million in the bridge. After a celebration in the middle of the bridge, the residents of Gunja and Brcko were given the bridge for use by European Commission heads for Croatia and Bosnia, ambassadors Per Vinther and Hans Joerg Kretschmar. About EUR22 million have been invested to date in the north-eastern Bosnian district of Brcko, said Kretschmar, adding Bosnia should not be allowed to stay out of European integration processes as it was not in the interests of either its citizens or the international community. The international community's first deputy high representative for Bosnia, Ralph Johnson, took the opportunity to comment on recent protests in Brcko at which Bosnian Serb high school pupils demanded separate schools for Muslims. Such things should not reoccur. The international community expects that people responsible for abusing pupils for political ends will be called to account, he said. (hina) ha jn