NATO SECRETARY GENERAL VISITS MOSTAR

MOSTAR, Dec 21 (Hina) - NATO Secretary General George Robertson on Thursday in Mostar held talks with Mostar mayor Safet Orucevic and deputy mayor Neven Tomic on the situation in that southern Bosnia- Herzegovina town. After the talks, Robertson visited the reconstruction site of the medieval bridge, demolished during Croat-Moslem conflicts in 1993. The NATO Secretary General said that the reconstruction of the bridge was the symbol of the unification of a town which had once been divided. He expressed a belief this would attract foreign investors. Robertson called upon Mostar residents to support Orucevic and Tomic in their attempts to re-establish a joint life of the two communities (Croat and Bosniak). He stressed Bosnia-Herzegovina would not be accepted in the Partnership for Peace programme until a joint military headquarters was established and a joint defence policy was endorsed. It would be sad and ironic if the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia joined the Partnership for Peace programme before Bosnia- Herzegovina, Robertson said. He reiterated there was no future for Bosnia-Herzegovina with two entities and three armed forces. He stressed that the arrests of war crime suspects, including former Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, would be continued in the next year. (hina) it