INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY CONDEMNS STOLAC INCIDENTS

( Editorial: --> 9368 ) SARAJEVO, 4 Feb (Hina) - Representatives of international organisations in Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday expressed concern over the deteriorating security situation in Stolac, southern Bosnia-Herzegovina. Several attacks on Bosniak (Muslim) returnees were reported in Stolac in the past several days. UN spokesman Alexander Ivanko said the newly-appointed head of Stolac police is expected to immediately order an investigation so that the circumstances of those incidents could be established. The last attack happened yesterday, when a bus carrying Bosniak returnees was stoned. Former Stolac police chief Jozo Matic was dismissed in line with a decision by the International Police Task Force commissioner Manfred Seitner and Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Interior Minister Valentin Coric. Ariane Quentier, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, recalled that the project of refugees' return to Stolac had not been completed. Participants in the meeting of the Council for Implementation of the Dayton Agreement, held in Bonn last year, had decided that all pilot-projects had to be completed by 4 February. One hundred Bosniak families were supposed to return to Stolac, but only 76 managed to return, Quentier said. The pilot-projects envisaged the return of refugees to four towns. They have been carried out in Travnik and Jajce, but not in Bugojno. (hina) mm rm 041457 MET feb 98