KLEIN VISITS MUSLIM CEMETERY IN MOSTAR

( Editorial: --> 0553 ) MOSTAR, March 18 (Hina) - The international community's Deputy High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jacques Klein, on Wednesday visited the Muslim cemetery in Mostar's western suburb of Balinovac, where an exhumation of unidentified bodies is in its third day. The victims are persons killed in 1993 during conflicts between the Croatian Council of Defence (HVO) and the Bosnia-Herzegovina Army. Up until Wednesday afternoon, 40 bodies have been exhumed, informed the leader of the exhumation Halil Maksumic, a judge of the High Court in eastern Mostar. According to Maksumic, it is assumed that there are about 10 bodies remaining in that cemetery. The exhumation is expected to finish tomorrow. Jacques Klein said the international community's objective is that as many victims' bodies as possible be exhumed by November this year, adding that exhumation is currently the most difficult task in B-H. If Croat, Bosniak and Serb commissioners for missing persons can cooperate in that difficult project, than there should not be disagreement not even on the government level, said Klein. Klein advocated the foundation of central B-H institution that would be set up and equipped for faster identification and in which specialists would be trained for that procedure. The president of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Commission for Tracing Missing and Captured Persons, Sonja Mulac, said that the Bosniak side is asking Croatia for 880 missing Bosniaks on the territory of that canton. She said that in eastern Herzegovina, the Bosniak side is asking the Serb side for 750 missing Bosniaks. The vice-president of the Croatian side in the Federal Commission for Missing and Captured Persons, Jerko Radic, said that on the whole B-H territory the Croat side is searching for about 700 missing Croats from the Serb side and about 300 from the Bosniak side. (hina) mm mrb/ha 181612 MET mar 98