SARAJEVO MEDIA RESTRAINED ON TUDJMAN'S DEMILITARISED BOSNIA IDEA

( Editorial: --> 1101 ) SARAJEVO, March 20 (Hina) - Sarajevo media on Friday finally registered a proposal by Croatian President Franjo Tudjman that Bosnia-Herzegovina be demilitarised, with first reactions being restrained. Tudjman's idea, which would be accompanied by strong security guarantees from Bosnia's neighbours, was delivered on Wednesday during talks with German and French Foreign Ministers Klaus Kinkel and Hubert Vedrine. Friday's edition of "Oslobodjenje" had a short front-page commentary by Bosnian Presidency chairman Alija Izetbegovic's foreign policy advisor Mirza Hajric, who said that "Bosnia- Herzegovina is still in an extremely high-risk surounding ... for President Tudjman's idea to be realised". He said that "with (Yugoslav President) Slobodan Milosevic and Kosovo, and the recent speech of Franjo Tudjman at the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) convention, any idea of demilitarisation falls into the water". Hajric assessed the demilitarisation proposal as basically a good one but unachievable because it would mean modifying the Dayton peace accords. Izetbegovic's advisor recalled that it was Bosnia's aim to enter the "Partnership for Peace" programme, which was not possible without its own military force. "Dnevni avaz" reported Tudjman's proposal through a short agency item in the inside pages, even though Friday's edition of the paper close to the Muslim-led Party of Democratic Action (SDA) devoted a greater part in analysing Croatia's international position. "Avaz" commentator Fadil Mandal, among other things, wrote that "in his arrogant relations towards Europe and America and his cardinal theses on the impossibility of the continuance of a united Bosnia- Herzegovina, the Croatian President legitimised himself as a factor of disturbance in a world which aspires to integration and permeation of different cultures and civilisations", concluding that such a policy did not have prospects in the new reality of the Balkans. (Hina) mm mb /ha 201610 MET mar 98