BOSNIAN HOUSE OF REPS DID NOT ELECT CROAT FOR VICE-PRESIDENT

SARAJEVO, Dec 3 (Hina) - The House of Representatives of the Bosnia- Herzegovina Assembly on Thursday elected Bosniak Halid Genjac as president and Bosnian Serb Mirko Banjac as his deputy. A Croat vice-president was not elected at the session, because Pero Skopljak of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina (HDZ BiH) nor Ivan Mijacevic of the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia-Herzegovina (SDP BiH) did not collect a sufficient number of votes. The election of a Croat in the Assembly leadership has been postponed for the next session. Thursday's session was extended because Mirko Banjac suggested that the Lower House condemns the existence of secret indictments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He said that acts such as the arrest of Bosnian Serb army general Radislav Krstic "do not contribute to the implementation of the Dayton Agreement". His statements caused Bosniak MPs to react harshly, and recalled that secret indictments began to be used because local authorities did not show a readiness to cooperate with the Tribunal. The Premier of the Bosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Edhem Bicakcic, suggested that SFOR be congratulated for the successful arrest operation. (hina) lml mm