STILL NO AGREEMENT ON REORGANISATION OF BOSNIAN SERB POLICE

SARAJEVO, Aug 15 (Hina) - UN spokesman Alexander Ivanko said in Sarajevo on Friday that a final agreement with the Bosnian Serbs on the reorganisation of their police forces still has not been reached. But he added that negotiations were continuing and that the UN would insist on compliance with the deadline of September 1. The biggest problem at this moment is an agreement on the number of police officers who can be engaged in the Serb entity, Ivanko said. The Bosnian Serb police force currently has about 20,000 personnel, and International Police Task Force (IPTF) officials have said earlier that it should be reduced by at least 50 per cent. UN mission chief Kai Eide discussed the issue with Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic in Banja Luka on Thursday. Also involved in the negotiations are members of the Serb government based in Pale. However, Bosnian Serb Interior Minister Dragan Kijac is not involved because the IPTF does not want to have contacts with him because of his earlier demonstrated uncooperativeness. A spokesman for the NATO-led peace Stabilisation Force (SFOR), John Blakely, said that police forces would remain under NATO's supervision until they had been reorganised in line with the standards set by the international police. (hina) vm 151515 MET aug 97