DEMOCRATIC POLICE FORCE TO GUARANTEE PEACE IN BOSNIA

DUBLIN, Sept 28 (Hina) - Unless a democratic police force is built in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which will require the concerted political and material support of the international community, nothing that has so far been invested in consolidating peace can be fully realized, Jack Covey, chief of staff at the office of the international High Representative in Sarajevo, said in Dublin on Saturday. The police in Bosnia-Herzegovina must become part of the solution and not part of the problem, Covey told a conference on law-enforcement assistance to Bosnia-Herzegovina which should raise US$ 100 million to build a democratic police force in this country. As an important issue in the process of resctructuring the police forces of Bosnia-Herzegovina's Moslem-Croat and Serb entities, Covey stressed the professional testing of each police officer who wanted to stay on the force. Covey noted that programmes would take into account differences in the political setup of the Croat-Moslem Federation and the Serb Republic. Moslem and Croat police in the Federation, whose government will be highly decentralized, will be integrated to form a single professional police force at cantonal and municipal level. The Federation police force will be reduced considerably and will have fewer than 12,000 officers. In the Serb Republic, where government will be centralized, the strength of the police force will be reduced simultaneously with its modernization, possibly over a longer period, Covey said. The police forces of both entities will have to accept the basic principles of a democratic police force stipulated by the UN International Police Task Force (UNIPTF) and accept the leading role of the UN police. Col. Horst Tiemann, UNIPTF director for special projects, said that the Federation police would be 11,500-strong, with 10,000 officers at cantonal level and 1,500 at federal level. (hina) vm 281630 MET sep 96