UNHCR CONCERNED OVER SERIES OF MURDERS OF BOSNIAN CROATS

( Vidi vijest: 6423 ) MOSTAR, Oct 28 (Hina) - Officials of international organizations in Bosnia-Herzegovina on Tuesday held a joint press conference in Mostar and most vehemently condemned the Sunday murder of one and wounding of three Croats in Bosniak-controlled Travnik, central BH. According to Martin Garrod, head of the Mostar regional office of the international High Representative for BH, that was a "horrible murder". We must see the results of the investigation, he said. David Foley, head of the Mostar regional office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, called for urgent action in the Central Bosnia Canton aimed at discovering and arresting the murderers. According to Arianne Quentier, the UNHCR spokesman in Mostar, the series of murders of Croats in Travnik caused extreme concern at the UNHCR since, she said, it was taking place at a time when authorities were negotiating on the return of displaced persons to central Bosnia. UN spokesman in Mostar Kelly Moore said the International Police Task Force had established a special investigation team to assist local police arrest the culprits. The UN mission will not speculate on whether such crimes are ethnically motivated until local police finish the investigation, she said. Moore claimed the latest victims in Travnik were shot at from automatic rifles and just 500 metres away from the spot where, she recalled, on 30 August two Croats, father and son, had been killed. Commenting on an investigation into the 18 September car-bomb explosion in western Mostar, Moore said the statements by Herzegovina-Neretva Canton interior minister Valentin Coric, that investigation results had been submitted to the IPTF, were incorrect. The UN spokesman confirmed that a man suspected of physically attacking Vidak Kozul from western Mostar in the town's eastern part on 26 September was set free. The suspect had been arrested the day after the attack, Moore said, adding he was released before Kozul died in a hospital in Split, Croatia. (hina) ha jn 281650 MET oct 97