OSCE CHIEF SAYS ELECTIONS IN BOSNIA SHOULD TAKE PLACE IN APRIL

VIENNA, June 10 (Hina) - Mission chief of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Robert Barry, told the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday municipal elections in Bosnia should be held in April of next year. The elections were scheduled for this November, but Barry suggested they take place in April because of NATO actions in neighbouring Yugoslavia which are destabilising the political situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The final decision on the postponement and the date of elections will be set by the Provisional Electoral Commission in the country by the end of June. All parties in Bosnia-Herzegovina supported the suggestion, because they will have more time to prepare, Barry said, adding he also wished to avoid elections in Croatia, envisaged for the end of this year, clashing with those in Bosnia. Last month's establishment of the municipal government in Srebrenica (eastern Bosnia) is one of the OSCE Mission's biggest successes in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Barry said. He added this was a further step in the establishment of trust and reconciliation. The general situation in the country has become radicalised due to a decision by the arbitration commission that Brcko (a strategic town in the north of the country) not belong to either entities, but be a separate zone, by the ousting of Republika Srpska president Poplasen, and NATO actions in Yugoslavia, Barry said. Negative results are expected in the work of joint institutions and a very difficult economic situation which is very bad as it is founded on foreign assistance, Barry said. He also mentioned difficulties caused by separatist elements, both Croat and Serb, who wish to revise the Dayton Agreement and reach a special status. On the other hand, positive is the existence of a general consensus in Bosnia-Herzegovina that nobody wishes to be drawn into the conflicts in Yugoslavia, and even radical Serb elements are distancing themselves, despite rough rhetorics, Barry stressed. The new situation in the region opens up a new opportunity for positive development -- the end of the Kosovo crisis and the start of economic revitalisation of countries in the region. Most politicians in Bosnia-Herzegovina are aware of the fact that their future is within the country after all, Barry said. The role of the OSCE is to organise and supervise elections, further strengthening of central institutions of authority, political, economic and legislative reform, and primarily, a permanent electoral law. Barry also spoke about the two-way return of refugees and displaced persons, which remains one of the priorities of the international community in Bosnia-Herzegovina. (hina) lml