INTERNATIONAL DONORS TO PROVIDE $1.23 BILLION TO REBUILD BOSNIA

BRUSSELS, April 13 (Hina) - A two-day donors conference concluded in Brussles on Saturday after representatives of 50 countries pledged to raise USD 1.23 billion in aid for postwar reconstruction of Bosnia-Herzegovina. European Commissioner Hans van den Broek told a press conference after the meeting that aid to Bosnia-Herzegovina depended on compliance with Dayton peace agreement requirements. Van den Broek said he hoped the people and government of Bosnia-Herzegovina would be encouraged by results of the conference and would work on the promotion of peace and democracy in their country. The European Union would provide one third of the total amount for this year, Van den Broek said, adding that the European Commission had decided that the next donors conference would be held after elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Van den Broek said that failure by Bosnian Serbs to attend the conference was regrettable particularly because it was related to their refusal to hand over war crimes suspects to the Hague-based international criminal tribunal. World Bank president James Woltensohn said that priority aid projects would include the reconstruction of infrastructure, housing projects and job-creation programmes. Bosnian Prime Minister Hasan Muratovic expressed thanks for the donation and said that his government would regularly report on the use of the funds. Muratovic expressed regrets about Bosnian Serbs' absence from the conference, saying that it would be detrimental to the Bosnian citizens living in the Serb-controlled area. International High Representative Carl Bildt said that if the government of the Bosnian Serb Republic did not prosecute war criminals, then it did not comply with Dayton agreement provisions. War crimes suspects such as Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and military commander Ratko Mladic can no longer have power and they should stop exerting influence on their people, he added. Bildt said that by the end of the century the European Union would have approved an additional USD 1.3 billion in aid and that USD 373 million had already been granted for this year. A Croatian delegation to the conference was headed by Assistant Foreign Minister Spomenka Cek. Croatia, which has so far spent several million US dollars on the accommodation of Bosnian refugees, has also pledged aid for construction of Bosnia-Herzegovina's infrastructure. (hina) vm 131753 MET apr 96