INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS CONDEMN STRONGLY MOSTAR INCIDENTS

MOSTAR, Feb 18 (Hina) - Heads of international organizations in the Mostar area, on Tuesday condemned strongly the February 10 incidents in Mostar when groups of Croats and Moslems (Bosniaks) had clashed and when at least one person died and several people were severely wounded. At a news conference held in the southern Bosnian town, the international organizations said that there should be no recurrence of such incidents. Criminal elements would not lead Mostar, but its citizens should do it, the commander of international police task force for the Mostar area, Franck Server told the conference. He said that an investigating group of the international police force would finish the probe of the incident this week. The head of Bildt's regional office in Mostar, Martin Garrod, said that the first step toward normalizing the situation in the town was to implement decisions on Mostar, made on a 12 February meeting in Sarajevo under the chairmanship of Ambassador Michael Steiner. Garrod portrayed three decisions as crucial - the investigation by the international police force, the functioning of the joint police forces in Mostar and the calming of tensions in the town. SFOR South-East Sector multinational division's commander, General Yves le Shatelier told the conference that SFOR would prevent new war conflicts. Asked by eastern Mostar reporters whether it was true that there were troops of Bosnian Croat forces (HVO) and Croatian Army (HV) in the Mostar area, what the Social Democrat Party of Bosnia- Herzegovina had reported on Monday, Gen. le Shatelier replied that it was the war of media. The head of the Mostar office of the UNHCR, Neil Wreight, confirmed that out of 28 Moslem (Bosniak) families evicted from western Mostar after the February 10 events, 23 families had returned to their flats. Wreight added that tensions had been subsiding in Mostar on Monday and Tuesday. (hina) jn mš 181818 MET feb 97