GANIC: WE EXPECT A JUST DECISION ON BRCKO

SARAJEVO, Feb 18 (Hina) - We have done everything we could for Brcko and now we expect the arbitration tribunal to reach a decision on the status of this town, based on the principles of justice and fairness, Bosnian Federation Vice-President Ejup Ganic said in Sarajevo on Thursday. Ganic returned to Sarajevo from Vienna on Thursday, where he led a federal delegation that had given accounts before the arbitration tribunal. According to Ganic, Brcko has in the past three years become "one of the most depressive towns in this part of the world, thanks to the Republika Srpska authorities". US attorney Roberts Owen had a year ago, Ganic said, delegated precise tasks about necessary changes in Brcko, which the Bosnian Serb authorities failed to fulfil. "We believe the final decision about the status of Brcko will not lead to a collapse of the principles of international law in the Balkans," Ganic said. He refused to say whether it was unacceptable for the Bosnian Federation that Brcko be established as a district under special administration. "We have shown that the Bosnian Federation deserves Brcko," Ganic said. He explained the suggestion to establish Brcko as a district turned up as one of solutions at the "lower scale" of acceptability. Ganic said the arbitration commission's chairman, Roberts Owen, had been offered a possibility to reach "any rational solution". Brcko, a town in northeast Bosnia-Herzegovina, was occupied by Bosnian Serbs at the beginning of the war in the country to establish a corridor between Serbia and Banja Luka in northwest Bosnia-Herzegovina. Prior to the war, Serbs made up only 20.8 per cent of the population in Brcko. According to the Dayton Agreement, Brcko has not been returned to Bosniaks and Croats, but the decision has been left to international arbitration. The decision has since then been postponed twice, and Brcko, completely ethnically cleansed, has in the meantime been placed under international administration. (hina) lml jn