OSCE REPORTS ON OVERSIGHTS DURING BH ELECTIONS

MOSTAR, Sept 15 (Hina) - Head of the Mostar-based Regional Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), General Wolfgang Odendahl, on Sunday told a press conference in Mostar that OSCE and its collaboration agencies were responsible for yesterday's organizational difficulties regarding the Bosnian elections. 12-15 per cent of voters were unable to trace their names on voters' lists, Odendahl said, adding that one third of voters who wished to vote in absentia could not do it due to lack of ballots, a problem which was particularly evident in the Neretva, West- Bosnian and Central-Bosnian Cantons, controlled by his Office. OSCE's Mostar-based Regional Office forwarded a complaint to the Election Appellate Sub-commission with a request that voters in absentia be given another opportunity to vote, Odendahl said and reiterated that a polling box with ballots to vote in absentia "got lost somewhere". Commander of the multinational division for sector southeast of the NATO-led Peace Implementation Force (IFOR), General Xavier De Lambert, told the same press conference that only minor incidents had occurred in the zone he controlled (Sarajevo, Gorazde and Mostar areas). Asked about the news on three mortar shells which yesterday evening landed near the village of Vrda, a dozen kilometres north of Mostar, de Lambert said that an IFOR inspection team were unable to find evidence on the incident. He explained that the mortar shells did not land in Vrda, but in the Croatian rifle-range nearby. "Croats were unable to provide us with any evidence", De Lambert concluded. (hina) ha rm 151550 MET sep 96