ROUND-TABLE ON DESTINY OF BOSNIAN CROATS BEGINS IN MOSTAR

MOSTAR, March 8 (Hina) - A two-day round table on the issue whether the Dayton-arranged Bosnia-Herzegovina could have three identities without three entities began in Mostar on Monday. The event has been organised by a local branch of the "Matica Hrvatska", a Croatian cultural organisation. The first day of the discussions revolved around Croats being a constituent people in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Croat member of Bosnia-Herzegovina's collective Presidency, Ante Jelavic, who is also the leader of Bosnia's Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), agreed to the fact that Croats are constituent throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, he stressed, the arrangement not only of the Croat-Moslem Federation but also of the Bosnian Serb entity into cantons would be necessary and could contribute to the return of Croats. Under the Dayton Accords, Bosnia-Herzegovina formally consists of two entities - the Croat-Moslem Federation (officially called the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina) and the Serb entity (officially the Republic of Srpska). Jelavic called for "ruminations on a new territorial re- organisation of Bosnia-Herzegovina." According to Jelavic, the reason for such consideration is the "noticeable weakening of constitutions of Bosnian entities", which can also affect the position of the two entities, and that was in opposition to the Dayton agreement, he added. He opposed any variant of a unitary Bosnian state and the transformation of Croats into a national minority under the pretext that they could be Bosnian Catholics. Ivan Bender, another leader of the HDZ party, said the idea that all three peoples (Croats, Moslems and Serbs) are constituent on the whole territory of Bosnia should be "immediately dismissed". Bender, who recently participated in a discussion held by Bosnia- Herzegovina's Constitutional Court on possible amendments to the constitutions of the Croat-Moslem federation and the Serb republic in order to enable all three peoples to be constituent throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina, said Bosnian Croats should fight for "sovereignty in certain areas." The Bosnian Constitutional Court is not entitled to change the fundamental provisions of the entities' constitutions, but the Bosnian Parliament can do that, Bander added. Insistence on the hardline multi-ethnicity of Bosnia-Herzegovina could pose a threat of "biological extinction of Croats of Bosnia- Herzegovina", said the head of the Mostar-based branch of Matica Hrvatska, Josip Muselinovic. Muselinovic sees the future of this people in the creation of national institutions closely tied to the Republic of Croatia. A letter of Bishop of Banja Luka, Msgr. Franjo Komarica, was read at the beginning of the event. Komarica said he could not come to Mostar due to his busy schedule. In his letter, the Roman Catholic dignitary said that after his numerous meetings with international representatives, he supposed that there would be another Dayton. He also believed that "Bosnia- Herzegovina's entities will become history." Komarica called on participants in the Mostar event to work for the benefit of all Croats in the whole of Bosnia-Herzegovina. (hina) ms,