SECURITY SITUATION IMPROVES IN HERZEGOVINA-NERETVA CANTON

( Editorial: --> 4116 ) MOSTAR, June 26 (Hina) - The Herzegovina-Neretva Canton government on Saturday accepted a cantonal Interior Ministry report on the security situation in the southern Bosnia-Herzegovina region, assessing that the number of incidents had been significantly reduced due to the work of police. A government meeting in Mostar was told the international community had expressed its satisfaction with progress in the security field which had allowed a more secure return of displaced people throughout the Canton. Canton Interior Minister Valentin Coric said Bosniak (Muslim) media had recently criticised the work of the Herzegovina-Neretva Interior Ministry while at the same time deliberately overlooking the progress made. Martin Garrod, head of international High Representative Carlos Westendorp's Mostar regional office, agreed with the positive assessments of an improvement in the Canton's security situation. Neil Wright, head of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Mostar, announced that a larger number of Serbs, about 30 to 50, would be returning tomorrow to the southern Mostar suburb of Ortijas. They would be the first Serbs to return this area. (Hina) mbr jn 271348 MET jun 98