SDS ACCUSED OF OBSTRUCTING BOSNIAN SERB PARLIAMENT

( Editorial: --> 3898 ) SARAJEVO/BIJELJINA, Jan 12 (Hina) - The Serb Democratic Party (SDS) obstructed Monday's constitutive session of the Bosnian Serb parliament which was held in Bijeljina in north-eastern Bosnia- Herzegovina, the international High Representative's Office spokesman Simon Haselock said. Assessing the progress of today's meeting of the Serb assembly, Haselock warned that the SDS was attempting to impose a debate of unimportant issues instead of discussing the establishment of parliamentary working bodies and composition of a new government. "I am very disappointed with the meeting," Carlos Westendorp's spokesman told the program of the 'Otvorena televizijska mreza' (Open Television Network), which was included in a special broadcast of the assembly session. Immediately at the start of today's session - which was at least expected to elect a parliamentary speaker and his deputies - representatives of the SDS bench called for its suspension, saying that television coverage of the meeting did not "cover" the whole territory of the Bosnian Serb entity. However, only SDS and Serb Radical Party MPs voted for this proposal, which was opposed by other assembly members. The SDS was the governing party of the Bosnian Serb entity until parliamentary elections in November last year. After the elections the SDS has remained the leading party, but does not have a majority to form government in its own right. (Hina) mm mb 121816 MET jan 98