MOSTAR: PARTIAL RETURN PLAN ACCEPTED

( Editorial: --> 1231 ) MOSTAR, March 20 (Hina) - The government of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton accepted a partial plan on Friday evening for the return of displaced persons to the canton's territory. The plan was accepted for eight out of 14 municipalities comprising the canton; Konjic, Jablanica, Prozor-Rama, Capljina, Citluk, Stolac, Neum and Ravno. The acceptance followed negotiations between the Croat and Bosniak sides which ran for many days. The Croat and Bosniak sides did not reach agreement on the return of displaced persons to the territory of six municipalities in the city of Mostar. The canton authorities said that the sides should reach agreement within three or four days so that the return plan could also be accepted for Mostar. President of the canton government, Ramiz Leto, said acceptance of the return plan resulted from insistence by Martin Garrod, head of the Mostar Office of the High Representative for Bosnia- Herzegovina, and Neil Wright, head of the UNHCR office in southern B-H. In these eight municipalities, said Leto, there are about 3,000 empty houses for about 15,000 returnees. (hina) jn mrb/as 202204 MET mar 98