SINGLE SECURITY POLICY - PRECONDITION FOR REDUCING BH ARMED FORCES

SARAJEVO, Jan 31 (Hina) - Military commanders of the two Bosnian entities on Sunday agreed that it was possible to reduce armed forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina if one achieved what was necessary for the country's internal and external security. Rasim Delic, commander of the Croat-Muslim Federation Army Joint Command said that before reducing the current forces, the two entities needed to accept a single security policy eliminating the possibility of internal conflicts. Delic said this at a press conference in Sarajevo following a three- day conference on democratic control of armed forces, organised in the Bosnian capital by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission. Bosnian Serb Army chief-of-staff Gen. Momir Talic said it was possible to reduce the forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina and added that more concrete results could be expected in the future. "The Stabilisation Force (SFOR) is for the time being the guarantee of the Dayton agreement but we have to get used to maintaining security on our own, primarily by strengthening mutual trust", Talic said. Republika Srpska Defence Minister Manojlo Milovanovic said that an important precondition for strengthening trust was the elimination of "illegal financing of military forces", which includes everything that is not being implemented within the "Equip and Train" programme. Unlike the Federation, Republika Srpska receives no special military help from Yugoslavia, Manojlovic said. He also said it was not true that the Bosnian Serb army was "the fourth component of the Yugoslav Army", stressing that it was currently closer to Federation rather than Yugoslav forces. (hina) rml