HERCEG-BOSNA CANTON AUTHORITIES REFUSE MEDIATOR'S PROPOSAL

( Editorial: --> 6512 ) LIVNO, May 25 (Hina) - International mediator for Bosnia- Herzegovina Christian Schwartz-Schilling held talks with leaders of the Herceg-Bosna Canton in Livno on Monday. After the eight-hour meeting in the western Bosnian town which was held behind closed doors, canton premier Filip Andric said the conclusions Schwartz-Schilling offered the cantonal authorities were not signed. In a short statement, Schwartz-Schilling said he was not satisfied with the meeting as no solution was reached nor was a binding agreement signed. Schwartz-Schilling did not specify items in the agreement which was offered to the Croat side nor the disputable details. He announced he would again visit Drvar and hold talks there in the next couple of days. Andric said that no agenda had been prepared for today's meeting nor were the problems in the canton defined. Following a report by international representatives who work in the canton, Schwartz-Schilling's advisor drew up an agreement which was offered to the Croat side in English. The offered text related to "the basic questions and position of a people in a state", which is "regulated in the constitutions of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the canton". "That is why nobody's imposing could be accepted," Andric said. "No agreement can be stronger than basic documents which regulate the legal system of a state." Andric further said that the international mediator did not know that a multi-ethnic police force was established or that the return of refugees to the canton was proceeding without impediment. So far, 1,500 Serbs have returned to Drvar which is more than the number of both Croats and Muslims who have returned to the Bosnian Serb entity. Attempts are being made to make the Croat side in the Herceg-Bosna Canton look unwilling to cooperate with the international community, Andric said. Representatives of displaced Bosnian Croats or the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in Bosnia-Herzegovina, who won last year's elections in Drvar, were not invited to today's meeting, Andric said. Today's meeting in Livno was also attended by representatives of the Office of the High Representative, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Federation Ministry for Social Policy and Refugees, the cantonal committee of the Muslim-led Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Serb Coalition for Return to Drvar. (hina) rm /mb 252155 MET may 98