BH CROAT LEADER SAYS INT PRESSURE ON BH CROATS IS MOUNTING

MOSTAR, Jan 18 (Hina) - Bosnian Croat leader Ante Jelavic on Monday said the international community's pressure on Bosnian Croats was mounting and was "directly aimed against the interests of the Croat people in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BH)." Jelavic, the president of the Croatian Democratic Union of BH (HDZ BH) and Croat member in BH's collective Presidency, was addressing a HDZ BH Presidency session in Mostar, southern BH. Jelavic also spoke about the recent appointment of two generals to commanding duties in the Croat component of the federal (Croat- Muslim) army which resulted in NATO's Stabilisation Force's confiscation of Croatian Defence Council weaponry. Jelavic said the confiscation had been an open negation of Bosnian Croat constitutionality and sovereignty and an attempt to break the Bosnian Croats' political and electoral will. "At no price shall we allow such relations," Jelavic said. Speaking about a Madrid declaration on the implementation of the Dayton peace agreement, he said it was "obligatory and possible" despite poor implementation. Jelavic emphasised the Croat side was devoted to the high international representative for BH, Carlos Westendorp. He said the parliaments of BH, the Bosnian Serb entity and the Croat-Muslim Federation of BH should immediately adopt binding refugee return plans with assistance from the international community. More than 400,000 Bosnian Muslims, currently accommodated on Federation territory, are waiting to return to their pre-war homes in the Bosnian Serb entity. This, Jelavic said, was a burden to the overall relations between Bosnian Croats and Muslims, and to the establishment of authority. (hina) ha jn