HOLBROOKE ON IMPLEMENTATION OF DAYTON PEACE ACCORDS

DAYTON, Nov 17 (Hina) - The peace accords on Bosnia and Herzegovina have to be implemented fully and despite undoubted progress and results, a lot remains to be done, one of the creators of the Dayton peace accord said in Dayton on Friday. Addressing a two-day conference marking the fifth anniversary of the accords, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, said there were five important objectives that need to be focused on in the further implementation of the accords reached in 1995 to stop the bloodshed in Bosnia. The first objective is the establishment of a uniform Bosnian army. Holbrooke said the current national armies were the consequence of the biggest deficiency of the accord. NATO can draw up a plan and deadlines for the integration of the Bosnian army without problems, he said. Holbrooke advocated a fiercer battle against corruption and crime obstructing economic recovery and development. The ambassador also pointed to the need of refugee returns, stronger freedom of the media, and the arrest of indicted war criminals. Holbrooke said that of 94 publicly indicted war criminals 26 were still at large, including two of the most hated people in the world, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, as well as the one he called the chief arsonist of the Balkans, Slobodan Milosevic. The ambassador said it was up to Bosnia's citizens to decide whether they wanted to take the road of separatism, hatred, violence and backwardness, or that of integration, peace, progress and full partnership in contemporary Europe. Briefly commenting on last weekend's election, he called the Croatian Democratic Union and the Serb Democratic Party separatists which objected to the very essence of the Dayton accords. Holbrooke's optimism as to the realisation of the Dayton accord lies with recent changes in the region's leaderships. He said Croatian President Stipe Mesic was working on making his country a democratic and peace-loving neighbour, and that the international community was giving Yugoslavia's new President Vojislav Kostunica, who won against Milosevic at recent elections, the hand of friendship and hope for a new beginning. (hina) ha