ARMAMENT CONTROL CONFERENCE TAKES PLACE IN VIENNA

( Editorial: --> 2159 ) VIENNA, June 18 (Hina) - A five-day conference on the implementation of a sub-regional agreement on weaponry control in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina (BH) and Yugoslavia is taking place in Vienna according to the Dayton peace agreement. The basic task of the conference is to assess what the agreement has achieved to date and to suggest solutions for other disputed issues. The most important unresolved issue on the agenda concerns the fact that the Bosnian Serb entity possesses more weaponry than it should. Ten days before the Vienna conference opened, that entity reported a surplus of 245 artillery weaponry, mainly rocket-launchers. This weaponry must be destroyed as soon as possible in order to bring the heavy weaponry reduction process to an end. In Croatia, BH, the Croat-Muslim Federation of BH and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) that process was completed late last year. The participants in the conference reiterated that the real number of battle aircraft in possession of the FRY remains unknown. A BH Federation delegation requested that an inspection be carried out in unreported military locations in the south Yugoslav province of Kosovo. The implementation of the sub-regional agreement has been assessed as generally positive. The diplomats in Vienna concluded that despite oversights, the agreement may serve as model in resolving post-war crises anywhere in the world. This assessment has been supported by data showing that 6,580 pieces of heavy weaponry, including tanks, armoured-vehicles and cannons, as well as aircraft have been destroyed in one year. The Vienna conference is chaired by Italian general Carlo Jean on behalf of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. A Croatian delegation is headed by Assistant Foreign Minister Vladimir Drobnjak. (hina) ha jn 181628 MET jun 98