CROATIA MAKES PROGRESS IN MEETING ITS OBLIGATIONS - GULDIMANN

VIENNA, June 3 (Hina) - Croatia has made progress in fulfilment of its international commitments, but it is still to do additional work, said Tim Guldimann, a former head of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) mission in Croatia, at a news conference in Vienna. This Swiss diplomat was at the post of the head of the OSCE mission in Zagreb from September of 1997. Ambassador Guldimann on Thursday addressed diplomatic representatives of 54 OSCE member-states at a session of this organisation's Permanent Council. After that he held a press conference at which he said that according to all indicators, the forthcoming elections in Croatia would be probably objective and democratic. Guldimann pointed to the compromise of the Opposition Six and the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in the negotiations on the electoral law as an encouraging sign. Commenting on the final report on Croatia made by Guldimann, Croatia's Ambassador to the OSCE, Mario Nobilo, said today's discussion at the Council's session showed that major OSCE member- states were less critical toward Croatia because they could understand the objective internal and regional situation. Nobilo voiced satisfaction with the fact that the discussion showed also a more balanced approach to Croatia than OSCE reports did. According to Nobilo those reports not objective. We have achieved results of which we can be proud and I believe that Guldimann's successor, French Ambassador Ponchet, will have an easier situation since Croatia is also ready to assume an important role in stabilising the entire region, Nobilo said during the discussion. In this sense Croatia has already been treated as a part of a solution rather than a part of the problem, according to the Croatian ambassador. Present at the OSCE Permanent Council's session were students of the Croatian Diplomatic Academy, who are on the two-day visit to the OSCE headquarters in Vienna. (hina) jn ms