MOSTAR, Jan 5 (Hina) - Two Bosniac (Moslem) policemen were seriously wounded in Mostar when shots were fired from the Croat side, the local European Union administration said on Friday. The policemen from eastern (Bosniac) part of
the city were in a car rolling on the downtown Boulevard Street toward the Spanish square at about 9 p.m. Thursday as ten to twelve small-arm rounds came in from the Croat side, E.U. chief Hans Koschnick told a news conference Friday. The incident occurred on the very separation line formed during fierce clashes between the two town's communities in 1993, at the spot only several hundred meters away from the European Union administration site.
MOSTAR, Jan 5 (Hina) - Two Bosniac (Moslem) policemen were
seriously wounded in Mostar when shots were fired from the Croat
side, the local European Union administration said on Friday.
The policemen from eastern (Bosniac) part of the city were in
a car rolling on the downtown Boulevard Street toward the Spanish
square at about 9 p.m. Thursday as ten to twelve small-arm rounds
came in from the Croat side, E.U. chief Hans Koschnick told a news
conference Friday.
The incident occurred on the very separation line formed
during fierce clashes between the two town's communities in 1993,
at the spot only several hundred meters away from the European
Union administration site. #L#
One of the policemen was out of the life danger, Koschnick
said, adding that German criminal police would be included to the
investigation.
He recalled the murder of a Moslem youth on the New Year
night, just across the E.U. site, and the December 24 shooting from
the western at the eastern half of Mostar, which had drawn even a
local Moslem priest's protest.
"Such incidents make the life difficult here and put the
Dayton accord stipulations at stake," he said.
"Incomprehensible processes are taking place in Mostar," he
added, saying that "there were people on both sides eager to
destroy any signs of a healthy atmosphere."
Questioned of whether the European administration would demand
assistance from the IFOR (NATO-led Bosnian peace Implementation
Force) over the latest incidents, Koschnick said there was no need
for that, since it was a police business.
But he warned the IFOR might be called to help over the
problem with the local hydroelectric dam.
The dam -- on the river dividing the two communities --is in
so poor condition that it almost burst during floods before the New
Year, but officials say talks between the communities on repairs
have become bogged down in polemics.
On Friday morning a group of workers from the western (Croat-
controlled) Mostar showed up on the dam, Koschnick's aide Martin
Garrod said, which "could rise dangerous tensions in this
situation."
"The engineering works should be undertaken by the workers
from both sides," he added.
The reporters were also informed on a letter by WEU Police
Commissioner Colonel Helmut Janiesch, in which he responded to a
letter by western (Croat) police chief Zdravko Soldo.
Soldo had criticized the WEU Police on Tuesday, over the New
Year murder, saying its Commissioner was responsible for the
Boulevard Street, but Janiesch recalled an agreement --the
Memorandum on Understanding -- which stated that the WEU Police had
no executive authority in Mostar.
(Hina) mm bk
051437 MET jan 96