IFOR WILL PREVENT ANY VIOLENCE ON ELECTION DAY

SARAJEVO, 11 Sept (Hina) - IFOR soldiers in Bosnia were authorised to regulate traffic and prevent any action aimed at preventing the free passage of voters on all roads in Bosnia on the election day, IFOR ground force commander Michael Walker said Wednesday. IFOR soldiers would also control the general security during the elections, Walker said. 'IFOR would not perform duties of the civil police, but it would prevent criminal acts and answer to violence with force', Walker said. IFOR members would also have the right to arrest and temporarily detain any person who tried to cause incidents or prevent the passage of voters to their polling stations. IFOR would check vehicles in order to prevent possible transport of weapons over the inter-entity border. Almost 21,000 IFOR and NATO soldiers as well as the International Police Task Force would take part in securing conditions for the conduct of elections. The inter-entity border would be crossed by some 30,000 to 130,000 people on the election day, Walker said, stressing the towns of Doboj, Brcko, Sanski Most and Prijedor as special crisis points. The majority of refugees who want to vote in the municipalities in which they lived in 1991 would actually not be able to see their villages and towns, let alone visit their homes. The Serb authorities in Doboj had set up a polling station for displaced persons from Doboj three kilometers outside the town. The polling station for Srebrenica displaced has been set up 10 km outside Srebrenica. (hina) rm jn 111824 MET sep 96