CROATIAN GOVERNMENT AGREES ON SENDING POLICE TO MOSTAR

ZAGREB, Jan 26 (Hina) - The Croatian government on Friday agreed on sending Croatian police to serve as part of the European police force in the southern Bosnian town of Mostar. The composition of the Croatian police contingent and other details would be worked out in talks between Croatian Interior Minister Ivan Jarnjak and Mostar's EU administrator Hans Koschnik. Jarnjak told the government session that his ministry could send the police officers and equipment to Mostar within three or four days. Foreign Minister Mate Granic said that the sending of Croatian police would contribute to the implementation of the Dayton peace agreement, the improvement of relations between the Bosnian Moslems and Croats, and the strenghtening of relations between the Bosnian Federation and Croatia. The Moslem and Croat sides failed to reach agreement on the division of Mostar into six districts, as envisaged by the Dayton agreement, despite great efforts, Granic said. The Croatian government was willing to accept arbitration by Mostar's European Union administrator Hans Koschnik. Defence Minister Gojko Susak had recently met Koschnik and proposed on behalf of the Croatian Presdent that Croatia was willing to send 100 police officers to Mostar as part of the EU police force. Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Kostovic informed the session about the work of the Commission for Detained and Missing Persons. Kostovic said that negotiations with Serbia had been intensified and that Commission chairman Major Ivan Grujic was currently in Belgrade discussing the problem of detainees and missing persons with Serbian officials. He quoted the Commission's report as saying that Croatia was looking for 2,810 people who had gone missing during war and that the Serbian side had so far provided incomplete data on only 106 people. Kostovic said that the problem could be solved much more quickly if the Yugoslav authorities showed good faith, adding that Belgrade had about 90 percent of the data on missing and detained persons. He went on to say that 51 mass graves had been discovered in Croatia after Croatian military operations in May and August last year. The exhumation and identification of bodies was in progress, he added. Croatia was cooperative with the International Committee of the Red Cross which favourably assessed the treatment of prisoners after Operations Flash and Storm because Croatia observed international conventions, Kostovic said. (hina) vm jn 262042 MET jan 96