IZETBEGOVIC: NO CONDITIONS FOR ELECTIONS IN BOSNIA AT THE MOMENT

SARAJEVO, May 21 (Hina) - There are no conditions for free democratic elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina at the moment, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic said on Tuesday. "We are, however, very interested that elections take place as planned and that efforts be made in the future in order to ensure a change of conditions, which include freedom of movement, freedom of media and political organizing and the return of refugees", Izetbegovic told a press conference after a meeting with Swiss Foreign Minister Flavio Cotti, head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, (OSCE), charged with staging the elections, who visited Sarajevo today. #L# The basic condition for free elections is to remove Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic from the political scene, Izetbegovic said, stressing that this should be done by the Implementation Force or Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who took the obligation to do so in Dayton. Swiss Foreign Minister Cotti agreed that it was necessary to remove war crimes suspects from politics, but pointed out that it could not be OSCE's task. "We have listened to President Izetbegovic's estimation of the conditions for the elections very carefully and think that the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina has improved considerably in the last months", Cotti said, adding that OSCE's final decision whether elections could take place or not would be stated in the "following weeks". (hina) ha mm 211722 MET may 96