CROATIA ASKED TO AMEND ELECTORAL AND CITIZENSHIP LAWS- US DIPLOMAT

SARAJEVO, June 28 (Hina) - Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina should reach agreement on dual citizenship by 2002, but the question of Bosnian Croats casting ballots at Croatia's elections will be raised this year, said the head of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) mission in Bosnia, Robert Barry. In his interview to the ONASA news agency, which was released by the Sarajevo press on Monday, Ambassador Barry said the OSCE held that Croatia's law on citizenship was not in conformity with the European Charter on Human Rights, as that act treated even people who never lived in Croatia as its citizens. This diplomat added that the Council of Europe and a special group of international legal experts were trying to exert influence on the Croatian Government to amend the electoral and citizenship laws. Barry suggested that Serbs who fled Croatia should be enabled to vote at this year's election in Croatia without connecting their right to vote with their return. This American diplomat confirmed that a new electoral law in Bosnia, a draft of which is expected next month, would bring changes to the current electoral rules, although it was still unknown what kind of amendments would be suggested. The head of the OSCE mission in Bosnia assessed that politicians who were currently in office would certainly resist any change, as the system of elections and representation which enabled their victories so far suits them totally. I believe that the situation in Bosnia will change after the election, because the political situation in the country's neighbourhood has also changed. Centres of power created in Zagreb and Belgrade have weakened considerably, Barry said. He assessed that prospects of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) at the forthcoming election in Croatia were not good, and after the vote, Bosnia's Croats are likely to direct their attention more toward the country where they live, the American predicted. (hina) ms