COMMEMORATIVE GATHERING FOR LATE LEUTAR HELD IN MOSTAR

MOSTAR, Mar 31 (Hina) - The main gathering commemorating Jozo Leutar, the late deputy interior minister of Bosnia's Croat-Muslim Federation and presidency member of the largest Bosnian Croat party, the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina (HDZ BH), was held in the southern Bosnian town of Mostar on Wednesday. Leutar passed away on Sunday as a result of an as yet uncleared murder attempt earlier this month. Speaking at the commemoration, HDZ BH president Ante Jelavic credited Leutar with outstanding achievements in the Croatian Homeland War, and emphasised his contribution to the establishment of Bosnia's Federation and the survival of Croats in Bosnian capital Sarajevo. "He wanted to believed that coexistence was possible after a bloody war," Jelavic said. Croats in Bosnia should not yield to apathy and defeat at this moment, the Bosnian Croat leader said, and pointed to a tendency of assimilation which Leutar opposed. "Our destiny is to live in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BH) with the other two peoples (Muslims and Serbs)," he said. Croats are not secessionists and are aware that BH is also their homeland, and that it "must be arranged to make people live near each other." Jelavic added the international community was often unwilling to understand the Croats' demands. He warned that NATO's reaction came ten years after the Milosevic terror. The West had turned a deaf ear to Croatia's appeals of a decade ago to intervene and protect the Croat people from the attack of Milosevic's regime, the Bosnian Croat leader said. Despite everything, he added, Croats "seek international community assistance to make BH a country of peace and understanding." Besides Bosnian Croat officials, the commemoration was attended by high-ranking guests from Croatia, representatives of the international community, and the advisor to the Muslim member in Bosnia's collective Presidency. (hina) ha in