UN HIGH COMMISSIONER HOLDS NEWS CONFERENCE IN SARAJEVO

SARAJEVO, March 16 (Hina) - Problems in the Croat-Bosniac Federation were not such as to endanger the whole of the peace process, but they may significantly complicate the situation in the whole country, UN High Commissioner for the implementation of the peace agreement in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Carl Bildt, said on Saturday's news conference in Sarajevo. #L# Bildt said he would personally initiate a discussion on the situation in the Federation at a meeting between highest Croatian, Bosnian and Serb officials which is to take place on Monday in Geneva. "I expect that the Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and the deputy President of the Bosnian Federation, Ejup Ganic, will discuss the issue then," Bildt said. He also said that he would forward questions to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic concerning the full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal and full freedom of media in Serbia. Bildt said that the normalization of relations between the three countries is expected to be extensively discussed at the meeting. Bildt chaired Saturday's meeting of the joint civilian commission for the implementation of the peace agreement. Participating in the meeting were prime ministers of the Bosnian Federation and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Izudin Kapetanovic and Hasan Muratovic, respectively, and the Premier of the Serb entity in Bosnia, Rajko Kasagic. The meeting discussed a number of measures to be taken for the reconstruction of infrastructure and establishment of a unified system of payment in Bosnia. At the meeting, all sides in Bosnia-Herzegovina had been asked to set free 219 war prisoners as soon as possible. The persons are still held in prisons, despite long-overdue limits. Sixty-one persons who were being held in Bosnian prisons for committing war crimes must also be released because only the Tribunal in The Hague had the authority to establish their guilt or innocence, Bildt said. (hina) lm 161948 MET mar 96