DESTRUCTION OF HOUSES IN SEPARATION ZONE CONTINUES

SARAJEVO, 20 Nov (Hina) - Some twelve houses were destroyed by mines on the night of 18 November in the abandoned Muslim village of Havazi, near Doboj (northern Bosnia), within the Bosnian Serb entity. U.N. spokesman in Sarajevo Alexander Ivanko on Wednesday stated that the investigation which was carried out by the international police and Serb police officers has proven that the houses were destroyed by anti-tank mines. #L# Eyewitnesses told international police members that a larger group of people had been spotted in Havazi on the night of the incident. Ivanko said that international organisations in Bosnia condemned the incident and held it necessary for the Serb police to do more in the prevention of similar incidents. According to data of the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 200 houses of displaced people, located in the villages in the inter-entity separation zone, had been destroyed so far. UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski strongly condemned the Havazi incident, describing it as an act of barbarism. It would be naive to believe, he said, that the destruction of houses was being carried out without the knowledge of local Serb authorities. The prevention of the destruction of abandoned houses was one of preconditions set by international organisations in Bosnia, aimed at facilitating the return of refugees to the separation zone. The return was suspended after clashes near the villages of Koraj and Celici in northern Bosnia. Michael Steiner, deputy to the high international representative for the implementation of the Peace agreement, met the Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic in Banja Luka yesterday in order to discuss the problem. According to UNHCR spokesman Janowski, UNHCR had been informed that Biljana Plavsic had promised to order local authorities to meet their commitments from the Peace agreement and cooperate in the process of the return of refugees. (hina) rm jn 201430 MET nov 96