MEDIA CONTROLLED BY SERB HARDLINERS POSE THREAT TO PEACE PROCESS

PROCESS $ SARAJEVO, Aug 22 (Hina) - International High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina Carlos Westendorp has demanded mechanisms be put at his disposal for punishing the media controlled by the Bosnian Serb authorities at Pale which have become a threat to the peace process, his spokesman said in Sarajevo on Friday. Spokesman Duncan Bullivant said that the request had been supported at a meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna on Thursday, which discussed the implementation and supervision of parliamentary elections in the Serb entity set by Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic for October 12. The Office of the High Representative, in line with decisions from Sintra, Portugal, is authorised to prevent the operation of media violating the Dayton peace agreement. However, Westendorp and his associates do not have technical facilities to do that so that they requested direct assistance from the NATO- led peace Stabilisation Force (SFOR). SFOR spokesman John Blakely said that the SFOR command was aware that Serb-run television in Pale was trying to portray NATO troops as a Nazi occupation force. He described such attempts as extremely insulting. Thursday night, Pale television broadcast a programme showing footage of SFOR troops montaged in archival materials showing Nazi and Ustasha forces. The initial letter of the SFOR acronym was changed into the sign of SS troops. Commenting on a statement by the Bosnian Serb army that it "will not tolerate actions that may threaten the existence of Republika Srpska (Bosnian Serb Republic)," Bullivant said no importance should be attached to such statements because the Bosnian Serb military was not capable of interfering in the present conflict. (hina) vm jn 221544 MET aug 97