OSCE CONDEMS VELIKA KLADUSA INCIDENT

( Editorial: --> 9052 ) SARAJEVO, Dec 17 (Hina) - The OSCE mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday condemned an incident which happened in the north- western town of Velika Kladusa on Tuesday, during a failed attempt by a newly-elected municipal council to hold its founding session. A group of about 100 to 150 people gathered outside the town hall after the arrival of deputies of the Democratic People's Union (DNZ), the party which won local elections in September. Protesters threw eggs at OSCE vehicles and smashed the glass of one of the cars carrying DNZ councillors. One councillor sustained light injuries, OSCE spokesman Johan Verhayden told a news conference in Sarajevo. The spokesman said local police had responded to the violence too late. Although the leader of the local branch of the Moslem- dominated Democratic Action Party (SDA) tried to respond to the incident as soon as it had begun, the OSCE blamed this party for obstruction because its councillors had not come to the session. The OSCE mission demanded local authorities conduct an urgent investigation into the incident and punish the perpetrators. It requested full cooperation from the SDA in implementing the results of local elections. The DNZ party was founded by local Moslem politician and tycoon Fikret Abdic, who during the war established an autonomous province in the Velika Kladusa region and whose forces fought against the Bosnian government army. Meanwhile, in the north-eastern town of Bijeljina the local Serb Democratic Party branch had attempted to illegally replace five of municipal councillors, who had been elected on its list of candidates but later switched to the Serb National Alliance of President Biljana Plavsic. He stressed that the municipal council in Bijeljina would not be approved as legal until all councillors were allowed to perform their elective duties. The two cases would be considered by the OSCE Electoral Appeals Subcommittee. (hina) vm jn 171701 MET dec 97