TRACING MISSING PERSONS IN BH OF KEY INTEREST - SENATOR DOLE

( Editorial: --> 5367 ) SARAJEVO, Jan 18 (Hina) - Shedding light on the fate of a large number of persons still listed as missing since the war in Bosnia- Herzegovina is of key interest for reconciliation and the establishment of stable peace in BH, U.S. senator Robert Dole told reporters in Sarajevo Sunday. Tracing the many missing persons is primarily a humanitarian, and not a political issue, Dole said, adding all sides in Bosnia have the obligation to cooperate in the matter. The families of the missing deserve to know about the fate of their closest and at this moment this is of the utmost importance, the U.S. senator said. Dole, who earlier this year became chairman of the International Commission for Missing Persons, is on a two-day visit to the Bosnian capital, where he held talks with members of the Bosnian Presidency Alija Izetbegovic, Kresimir Zubak and Momcilo Krajisnik, Bosnian Foreign Minister Jadranko Prlic, and the vice president of the Bosnian Council of Ministers, Haris Silajdzic. Dole said he had demanded, and received, of his interlocutors guarantees that all prisoners who until now had not been registered with the Red Cross would be registered, and that there would be no so called secret arrests. We are not interested in possible political differences among the three sides but want to reach an agreement on this issue, the senator said. According to the president of the International Red Cross, Cornelio Sommaruga, Bosnian Serbs have been requested to give answers on the fate of 16,400 missing persons, the Bosniak-Muslim side on 1,800 persons, and the Bosnian Croat side on 1,300 missing persons. On behalf of his organisation, Sommaruga called on top politicians in Bosnia to stop with political trade in tracing missing persons, and to stop insisting on reciprocity in solving this issue. He also called on all sides to strongly comply with the commitment not to arrest people without charges and trials. The delegation of the International Commission for Missing Persons will tomorrow visit Zagreb and Belgrade for talks on the matter with Croatian and Yugoslav Presidents, Franjo Tudjman and Slobodan Milosevic respectively. (hina) ha 182004 MET jan 98