ORGANISED CRIME IS INCREASING IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

SARAJEVO, May 13 (Hina) - Organised crime is an occurrence in Bosnia-Herzegovina which is increasing, a representative of the International Police Task Force (IPTF) in the country, Detlef Buwitt, said in Sarajevo on Thursday. He told a news conference Bosnia-Herzegovina urgently needed to establish a border police force within half a year or a year to sever the chain of organised crime passing through it at the moment. Bosnia-Herzegovina is today an important transit area for organised crime, including drug trafficking, stolen cars and prostitution," Buwitt said. He stressed the IPTF was capable of training and controlling the drafting of members of border police, but this needs the consent and decision of local police structures in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bosnian authorities, according to Buwitt, have already been offered a model of organising border police as exists in Germany which itself faces similar problems in the fight against organised crime as in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Buwitt described as positive the motioned measures for the fight against terrorism adopted by the Bosnian Federation Government on Wednesday, stressing they were a good and harmonised document between Croat and Bosniak representatives at the federal Interior Ministry. Commenting on the investigation into the murder of deputy interior minister of the Bosnian Federation, Jozo Leutar, Buwitt said all measures were being undertaken to find the perpetrators. Between 40 and 50 experts of different profiles have been involved in the investigation, and some 280 people have been questioned in the course of the investigation so far, Buwitt said. He confirmed the investigation has so far been without significant results, stressing it was a very difficult case. (hina) lml