BOSNIAN HDZ BEGINS PREPARATIONS FOR ELECTIONS

SARAJEVO, Oct 6 (Hina) - The Bosnian Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is interested in the participation of Bosnian Croats in the parliamentary elections which will be held in Croatia towards the end of the year, and expects the final decision on the manner this will be carried out will soon be passed by the Bosnian Presidency. Bosnian HDZ vice president Stjepan Mikic told reporters in Sarajevo on Wednesday this largest Bosnian Croat party had been informed the Croatian Embassy in Bosnia had to that effect taken the necessary activities. The party now awaits for the position of Bosnia's leadership, he said. Mikic told the press the Bosnian HDZ electoral implementation headquarters today held its first session and launched preliminary activities for Bosnian municipal elections, expected to be held in April 2000. Representatives of the party also told the press they had not yet received the integral text of a new electoral bill, which was drafted under supervision of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe Mission to Bosnia. Details known so far indicate some provisions significantly violate the Constitution and bring into question the equality of the Bosnian Croat people. Bosnian HDZ officials said they had notified of the matter Croatian President Franjo Tudjman during talks in Zagreb on Monday, when also discussed were the overall position of Croats in Bosnia and the situation in one of its entities, the Croat-Muslim federation. Ivo Andric Luzanski, the vice president of the Bosnian HDZ and president of the federation, expressed hope today the international community would mediate in ensuring that Croat children in Bugojno and Vares be given the right to attend classes in their mother tongue. At present, Muslim authorities in the two towns do not allow it. Luzanski also said he had no intention of abstaining from appointing Barisa Colak the federation's minister of justice, and Ivan Backo minister of the interior, even though the international High Representative for Bosnia, Wolfgang Petrisch, had annulled the appointments. Luzanski said the two appointments were not at all contentious, and that the candidates met all criteria. The Bosnian HDZ will in the coming period take resolute action to establish new units of self-government in Bosnia, and to reorganise Travnik on the Mostar model, the federation's president concluded. (hina) ha jn