CROATIA SUPPORTS SCHEDULING OF BOSNIAN ELECTIONS AS PLANNED

VIENNA, June 20 (Hina) - Croatia had already estimated as necessary the scheduling of elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina as planned, Croatian Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Darko Bekic, told a session of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday. The OSCE Permanent Council should reach a decision as to the date of the scheduling of the elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina on Thursday. According to the Dayton Agreement they should take place in September. OSCE chairman, Swiss Foreign Minister Flavio Cotti, invited the representatives of the 53 member-counties to declare whether minimal conditions for free and democratic elections in Bosnia- Herzegovina had been achieved. Chief of the OSCE Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Robert Frowick, firmly said that elections should be scheduled on 14 September, because due to deadlines in the mandate of the NATO-led Peace Implementation Force, a delay of the elections was not possible. Endorsing the scheduling of the election as planned, Croatian Ambassador Bekic warned that "the establishment of state bodies and other institutions of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina is slow". Therefore, Bekic said, it was still necessary for Herzeg- Bosnia's bodies and institutions to function, because without them, the basic social activities such as health, education and administration, could not function and the citizens' human rights would be endangered. Such a situation could lead to riots and anarchy at the expense of the peace process, Bekic added. "Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina are the smallest in number among the three constitutional peoples and are therefore the most interested in the peace process and further democratic metamorphosis", Bekic said. The participants in the session agreed that many conditions for a successful scheduling of free and democratic elections had still not been created, but that elections must take place regardless. (hina) ha jn 201731 MET jun 96