BH CROAT OFFICIAL ASKS THAT DERVENTA LOCAL LEADERS BE REPLACED

( Editorial: --> 0406 ) SARAJEVO, April 29 (Hina) - Martin Raguz, head of the office of the Croat member of the Bosnian Presidency, Kresimir Zubak, has asked the High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina to replace the mayor and police superintendent in Derventa (a Serb-controlled town in northern Bosnia), because of incidents which happened there last Thursday. A group of more than 1,000 Bosnian Serbs attacked Croat displaced and Cardinal Vinko Puljic, who came to celebrate a mass on the ruins of a burnt down Catholic church in Derventa. In a letter sent on Wednesday to Westendorp's deputies Jacques Klein and Hanns Schumacher, Raguz said there was clear evidence that the events in Derventa were not spontaneous but well organised and synchronised, and that they led to the deterioration of the security situation in the town. The incident has led to the blockade of municipal bodies of authority, because Croat councillors believe that security conditions for their work in Derventa are non-existent, Raguz said. Raguz also requested the establishment of a joint, multi-ethnic police force in Derventa. "To undertake these measures would mean that the Office of the High Representative has no double standards in the same or similar situations in different areas," Raguz said. He also suggested that, should the proposed measures fail to yield results, a solution similar to the one in Srebrenica should be sought, where a special municipal commission led by an international representative has been appointed. (hina) jn rm/mrb 291630 MET apr 98