NERETVA CANTON ASSEMBLY FAILS TO PASS AMENDMENT TO CONSTITUTION

CONSTITUTION $ MOSTAR, Sept 5 (Hina) - Bosnian Croat and Moslem (Bosniak) representatives in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton assembly, on Friday failed to bring into accord their views on a text of an amendment to the cantonal constitution. Moslems proposed that the draft amendment, agreed upon at the Forum of the Croat-Moslem Federation on June 6 should be adopted, whereas Croats refused this text of the amendment for the fourth time in the past two months claiming that the Forum of the Federation could not propose constitutional amendments for this canton under the cantonal constitution. Following a one-hour-long discussion, 17 present Moslem members of the assembly left the session and remaining 26 members unanimously refused the proposal of Moslem deputies. The cantonal assembly consists of 50 members, and 28 of them are Croats and 22 are Moslems. Croat deputies have three major objections to the draft amendment, agreed upon at the Forum of the Federation on 6 June. The first objection refers to the treatment of the central city zone in Mostar as the seventh municipality in this southern city. Croats warn that it + is not in line with the Dayton accords. The head of the regional office of the international High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Martin Garrod, who was on Friday's session, admitted that the central city district was not part of the Dayton agreement, but he stressed that it was provided by the Rome agreement, signed by the then President of the Federation, Kresimir Zubak, and the Vice President, Ejup Ganic. The second objection is that the draft amendment introduces the same number of 'other' aldermen as there are Croat and Moslem members in the city council of Mostar. In this way 'others' become a constitutive people in Mostar, according to Croats' objection. Garrod replied that the same number of Croat, Moslem and other members of the city council was in line with the Mostar annex to the Dayton agreement. The third objection refers to a proposal that the head of Herzegovina- Neretva Canton and the mayor of Mostar should be from different peoples. The British diplomat said that on August 6, 1996, representatives of the Croat people, Srecko Vucina, Boro Puljic and Mile Puljic, signed an agreement under which the head of that canton and Mostar's mayor would be from different peoples. After the session Garrod portrayed it as yet another disappointing meeting. He added that according to the conclusions made by the Forum of the Federation, political and economic sanctions would be imposed on those who failed to respect the Forum's agreements. On the other hand, a member of the assembly, Mile Puljic, said that the Croat party was expecting "a prise for what has happened as the constitution and the Dayton agreement have been protected." (hina) jn mš 051939 MET sep 97