PIC: PROGRESS ACHIEVED BUT IMPLEMENTATION HAS TO BE ACCELERATED

( Editorial: --> 0052 ) LUXEMBOURG, June 9 (Hina) - The Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) assessed on Tuesday that important progress had been achieved in the implementation of the Dayton Agreement in Bosnia-Herzegovina. But it also said the agreement had to be expedited by the end of this year, especially the return of refugees and the reform of the economy. PIC foreign ministers met in Luxembourg on Tuesday with the Bosnia- Herzegovina leadership and representatives of countries which had signed to the Dayton Agreement in order to assess the implementation of the Agreement and establish priorities for the end of 1998. In a declaration after the session, the Steering Board said a new, more moderate government had been elected in the Bosnian Serb republic, that a number of war crimes indictees had ended up before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and that the new flag, passports and joint vehicle registration plates had been accepted in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "Since December, I can report progress which, had I forecast it then, you may have wondered if the High Representative had taken leave of his senses," International High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina, Carlos Westendorp, said at the Board session. Despite important progress, the Board decided that there was still a nationalist-based resistance to the path of implementing the Dayton Agreement. The Steering Board requested an acceleration in the implementation of the peace agreement by the end of 1998, and set concrete requests regarding the return of refugees, the reform of the police and justice systems, economic reform, strengthening of joint structures of authority and implementation of free and fair elections in September. Westendorp said this year should be the year of return of refugees into Bosnia-Herzegovina, especially into areas where their ethnic group was a minority. In the declaration, the Board stressed the importance of establishing a modern economy in Bosnia-Herzegovina and its integration on the level of the whole country. The Steering Board also underlined the importance of establishing professional security forces and the strengthening of their multi- ethnic character, as well as the establishment of an independent judiciary which would guarantee a legal state. The Board estimated that the establishment of joint institutions in Bosnia-Herzegovina and their functioning was proceeding too slowly. "After the elections in September the present practice of meetings (of the Presidency, Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Ministers) should finally cease" and sustainable and efficient common structures of authority be established, the declaration said. The Steering Board accepted Westendorp's suggestion that negotiations on the succession from the former Yugoslavia be postponed until the end of September because of a lack of progress. The Board advised that negotiations continue in creating adequate preconditions based on a draft by international representative Alan Watts. The Board will then return to the issue of succession, and if progress in the area is not achieved, it does not exclude international arbitration. (hina) lml /mbr 092136 MET jun 98