MOSTAR, 5 Aug (Hina) - The head of the Mostar regional office of the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Martin Garrod, held a press conference in Mostar on Tuesday. Garrod estimated that this week's visit of the
U.S. diplomats Richard Holbrooke and Robert Gelbard to the country would be a positive contribution to the establishment of peace in the region. It was not expected that the two officials would visit Mostar, Garrod said.
MOSTAR, 5 Aug (Hina) - The head of the Mostar regional office of the
Office of the High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Martin
Garrod, held a press conference in Mostar on Tuesday.
Garrod estimated that this week's visit of the U.S. diplomats
Richard Holbrooke and Robert Gelbard to the country would be a
positive contribution to the establishment of peace in the region.
It was not expected that the two officials would visit Mostar,
Garrod said. #L#
He reiterated his earlier statement that the association of
Croat municipalities of Mostar had been established illegally.
Commenting on a statement by the association saying that the
Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Justice Ministry and Canton
administration had approved the establishment of the association,
Garrod said that the statement was legally not valid, as the Canton
Justice Minister Damir Sadovic did not participate in the drawing up
of the statement.
Reporters were given copies of a statement issued by Minister
Sadovic, in which he distances himself from the opinion cited in the
statement by the association of Croat municipalities of Mostar.
Minister Sadovic said in the statement that his ministry had
never been "asked to give its legal opinion on the establishment of
an association of municipalities with Croat majority, nor had the
Ministry ever discussed it, let alone give any opinion."
Kelly Moore, spokesman for the International Police Task Force
(IPTF) in Mostar, said that the establishment of canton police in
six Mostar municipalities had been completed last Friday. The
establishment of canton police in all other municipalities of
Herzegovina-Neretva Canton begins today, Moore said, adding that the
process would be completed by 15 August this year.
The representatives of the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe and U.N. High Commission for Refugees, Edward
Joseph and Ariane Quentier, expressed concern over the recent
incidents in Jajce.
Bosniac families who had returned to Jajce within a pilot-
project on the return of refugees, remained in the town and were not
harassed, Quentier said. Sixteen Bosniac families who had returned
to Stolac, southern Bosnia-Herzegovina, within the same project,
were not maltreated either. The return of another 30 Bosniac
families to Stolac would continue on Friday, she said.
Spokesman for the SFOR multinational division in Sector South-
East, Loic Frouard, said that the SFOR yesterday destroyed the
grenades it had confiscated from the Croatian Defence Council (HVO)
end June this year.
(hina) rm
051723 MET aug 97