CROATIA RELEASES PREVLAKA PROPOSAL AT U.N. HEADQUARTERS

( Editorial: --> 3231 ) WASHINGTON, June 23 (Hina) - Croatia's proposal for a permanent solution to the issue of its southern Prevlaka peninsula was released at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday as a Security Council document. Prevlaka is on Croatia's most southern flank and borders Montenegro in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). A UN observer mission has controlled demilitarisation of the area since October 1992, when the Yugoslav People's Army withdrew from this part of Croatian territory. Croatia's draft agreement with the FRY offers a permanent resolution of the Prevlaka issue "in the spirit of good neighbourly relations and respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of both countries, as well as for achieving full security of the part of the territory of the Republic of Croatia in the area of Dubrovnik and the part of the territory of the FRY in the area of the Boka Kotorska Bay". It has been proposed that a mixed Croatian-Yugoslav Commission identify, demarcate and mark on the field the international borders, and fix the maritime border according to international law. The draft agreement proposes the opening of border crossings at Debeli Brijeg and Konfin, the carrying out of demilitarisation within a zone 2km deep on both sides of the international frontier, and a unilateral Croatian demilitarisation to a distance of 5km from the frontier for a period of five years. The submission of Croatia's proposal for a permanent resolution of the Prevlaka issue is part of the process in which the two countries were summoned by the UN Security Council. A Security Council resolution from January 13, in which the mandate of UN observers on Prevlaka was extended to July 15, urged Croatia and the FRY "to take concrete measures towards a negotiated resolution of the disputed issue of Prevlaka in good faith and without delay". The Council asked UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to submit by July 5 at the latest a report on the situation on Prevlaka and progress made in negotiations between the two sides. Croatia's draft agreement is based on an Agreement on the Normalisation of Relations between the two countries signed in August 1996, as well as international conventions including those on the inviolability of borders and the opinions of the Badinter Commission. Last Monday in Zagreb Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic handed over Croatia's draft agreement proposal to the FRY's Ambassador to Croatia, Veljko Knezevic. (Hina) mbr jn 232241 MET jun 98