CROATIAN EMBASSY REJECTS BOSNIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY'S NOTE

SARAJEVO, Sept 23 (Hina) - The Croatian Embassy in Sarajevo issued a statement on Tuesday saying that Croatia "completely rejects" a diplomatic note it had received from the Bosnian Foreign Ministry in connection with statements by Croatian officials on a car bomb explosion in Mostar. The statement said that the Bosnian Foreign Ministry had responded "on the basis of statements taken out of context and without valid arguments." A car bomb went off outside an apartment building in the southern town of Mostar on the night of September 18, injuring 29 persons and damaging 120 apartments and 120 cars. The next day Croatian Consul-General in Mostar Ciro Grubisic and Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina Darinko Bago visited the site of the blast. On that occasion, Grubisic and Bago recalled that five Croats had been killed by terrorists in the Bosnian Federation in the last few months, and urged the international community to take more resolute steps to prevent acts of terrorism. The Sarajevo-based BH Press news agency reported on Sunday that the Bosnian Foreign Ministry had forwarded a diplomatic note to the Croatian Foreign Ministry following statements made by the two Croatian diplomats. The note described their statements as "inappropriate and unacceptable." The note said that their statements prejudged the results of the investigation and diverted public attention from the real motive of the attack from which only opponents to the unification of Mostar and the Bosnian Federation could profit, according to the BH Press. The Croatian Embassy warned in its statement of "the repeated unilateral abuse of government institutions, in this case the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," arguing that the note reflected the view only of one of Bosnia-Herzergovina's three constituent nations - the Moslems. The Croatian Embassy statement described the note as "an attempt to mitigate statements by some senior Bosniac Moslem political officials who hastened to ascribe the blame for the Mostar crime to the Croats." The Embassy said it was willing to provide copies of the full text of the statements by Bago and Grubisic to anyone interested. The statement concluded by saying that it was "a very uncommon practice" that media had communicated information on the note several days before it had actually been handed to Croatian diplomats. (hina) vm jn 231506 MET sep 97