JOINT POLICE PATROLS START TOURING DOWNTOWN MOSTAR

MOSTAR, Feb 20 (Hina) - The joint police force began patrolling Mostar and full freedom of movement was established at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, as had been agreed in Rome on Saturday, European Union Administrator Hans Koschnick told a press conference. "Today is an important day for Mostar," Koschnick said, adding that at Tuesday's meeting with the Croatian Interior Minister, Ivan Jarnjak, and the Bosnian Federation Interior Minister, Avdo Hebib, in Mostar, the participants agreed that the police in Mostar should be completely unified by 1 March this year. Koschnick said that all sides would exchange bodies of soldiers killed in battles in Mostar. He added that people from both sides of the Neretva river could return to their homes if they were vacant. "Refugees have the right to stay in apartments which do not belong to them," Koschnick said. Speaking of the central administrative town district which had been agreed in Rome, koschnick said that it was smaller than the zone he had decided on, but larger than had originally been suggested by the Croat side. "Around 3,400 people (36% Moslems, 23% Croats and 41% Serbs and other minorities) will live in the new central administrative zone," Koschnick said. He called all citizens of Mostar to refrain from violence. "Let us live normally, like people in other towns," Koschnick said. Asked about an incident which happened on Tuesday around 1 p.m. in the western part of Mostar, near a point of separation, the western European Chief of Police in Mostar, Pieter Lambrehtcse, answered that "the people who wanted to cross over from the eastern to the western part of town had been stopped and had to turn back". Fire was opened and four persons had been apprehended. "We are investigating the incident and we will announce the results of the investigation as soon as possible," Lambrehtcse said, adding that the incident had not interfered with the freedom of movement in Mostar. (hina) lm jn 201951 MET feb 96