INTERNATIONAL POLICE INVESTIGATE CASES OF PRISONER ABUSE IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, June 3 (Hina) - International police in Bosnia-Herzegovina are investigating complaints about the abuse of civilians for which local policemen in Sarajevo Canton and the north-western town of Velika Kladusa are responsible, a spokesman for the United Nations in the Bosnian capital has said. According to the spokesman Alexander Ivanko, there are serious suspicions that policemen in the 'Novo Sarajevo' police station have recently beaten a man, and that two persons, believed to be followers of the Moslem secessionist Fikret Abdic, were physically harassed in the police station in Velika Kladusa last week. Ivanko said on Tuesday that the international police (IPTF) would insist on a through probe into these cases of violations of human rights and offence against and human dignity. He announced that the (Croat- Moslem) Federal Interior Ministry would be asked to take punitive measures against those policemen who had overstepped their authorities. If it were established that policemen had overstepped their authorities, they must be unconditionally dismissed, Ivanko said. He added that the mentioned cases were not isolated, as abuse of prisoners had been registered before as well. Due to such events, the permanent presence of international police has been introduced in four police stations in Sarajevo, but the situation is still unsatisfactory. He said that the such acts of policemen were not ethnically motivated and that victims of police violence were persons of different ethnic origins. (hina) jn mš 031339 MET jun 97