BH AMBASSADOR: COUNCILS FOR COOPERATION SHOULD MEET THIS MONTH

SARAJEVO, June 1 (Hina) - Bosnia's Ambassador to Croatia, Hasan Muratovic, on Tuesday confirmed that the meeting of the Council for Cooperation between Croatia and the Federation of Bosnia- Herzegovina should take place on June 11, while the Council for Cooperation between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina should meet by the end of this month, Sarajevo press reported. "If the meeting is not held in that period I doubt it will be held soon, since the holiday season is near, and it will be followed by an intense pre-election campaign in Croatia", Muratovic told the Sarajevo-based daily "Oslobodjenje". The BH ambassador said it was because of the current political relations between the two countries and their failure to resolve open problems that the two sides had not held meetings at high levels so far. As far as Bosnia-Herzegovina is concerned, the problem lies in the fact that Bosnian Croats are regulating their relations at meetings held outside of BH state institutions and are not insisting on the formal bodies of authority, while the Serb side falsely believes that relations between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia are not important, Muratovic said. He recalled a list of problems the two countries are expected to solve - borders, property relations, railway traffic and border crossings, trade, participation of BH Croats in the elections in Croatia, health and pension insurance, work permits, students' rights, and annexes to an agreement on special relations. Commenting on the case of Fikret Abdic, Muratovic said Croatia could not act as if Abdic had not been indicted for grave criminal acts, adding he should be extradited to Bosnia-Herzegovina to be tried. (hina) rml