GARROD COMMENTS ON EVICTIONS IN WESTERN MOSTAR

MOSTAR, Aug 30 (Hina) - Special envoy of the European Union in Mostar Martin Garrod on Friday told reporters that "the situation in the city, as regards evictions, is getting worse". Garrod said he was acquainted with the facts and the names of the criminals responsible for those horrible actions, adding that it was only a matter of when, and not if, they would be imprisoned. He invited the leaderships of Mostar and Bosnia-Herzegovina to be resolute in stopping these and similar criminal events. Garrod named several persons who had recently been evicted from their homes in the western, Croat, part of Mostar, and explained that there were cases when evictions had been performed by armed men. According to Garrod, some 50 persons had been evicted in Mostar this year. He challenged six well known figures from Western Mostar to "say publicly they will do everything in their power in the fight against criminals, the scum and gangs in Mostar". Commenting on today's statements at a Mostar press conference, Garrod told a Reuters correspondent in Zagreb that he was not accusing the six of any crimes, but wanted to throw an international spotlight on them to end "a climate of fear and intimidation" in Mostar. Garrod indicated that some perpetrators of continued evictions on ethnic lines in Mostar were under investigation by the International Tribunal on War Crimes in former Yugoslavia. "Investigations by the tribunal are slow, but exceedingly thorough and these people will end up behind bars", Garrod said for Reuters. (hina) ha jn 302113 MET aug 96