U.S. AMBASSADOR TO BOSNIA VISITS MOSTAR

MOSTAR, Apr 20 (Hina) - The United States Ambassador to Bosnia- Herzegovina, Richard Kauzlarich, on Tuesday expressed dissatisfaction with, he said, the failed attempt to create one army for Bosnia's Croat-Muslim Federation. Division in the army, police, or anything else cannot benefit the federation's population, Kauzlarich told reporters in Mostar, southern BH. The ambassador did not wish to comment on a statement the U.S. President's special envoy for the Dayton peace agreement, Richard Gelbard, made in Zagreb on Monday. Gelbard criticised the speeches made by Croatian Defence Council (HVO) Generals Mijo Jelic and Stanko Sopta and Croatian Army General Ljubo Cesic Rojs at the seventh anniversary of the HVO, the Croat component of the Bosnian Federation army, in Mostar on April 8. Kauzlarich said he had not heard exactly what Gelbard had said in Zagreb. The U.S. ambassador was also dissatisfied with the implementation of the peace agreement so far. He said it was inconceivable that in Sarajevo, the capital of BH and its federation, requests for the return of property were being cleared slowly. Kauzlarich also criticised the fact that Herzegovina-Neretva Canton officials prevented displaced persons from central Bosnia from returning to their homes. He also urged a mass return to Bosnia's other entity, the Bosnian Serb republic. Speaking about the Kosovo crisis, Kauzlarich pointed out the international community demanded that expelled ethnic Kosovo Albanians be returned to their homes, as it was the only guarantee for the future of the conflict-ridden south Yugoslav province. The ambassador commended the fact that some 30 Serb families had returned to Ortijes, a district in Mostar's mostly Croat-populated Municipality South, saying it indicated that displaced persons currently settled in the Bosnian Serb entity could return to their pre-war homes. (hina) ha