U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR VISITS BUGOJNO

BUGOJNO, Nov 25 (Hina) - The U.N. human rights special rapporteur, Elizabeth Rehn, on Monday visited Bugojno (the town under Moslem control, central Bosnia), where she held separate meetings with representatives of the Moslem and Croat peoples. The U.N. rapporteur and Bugojno Croats discussed the human rights situation, possibilities of the Dayton peace accords implementation, a pilot-project for the return of 200 Croat families to their hometown and the protection of the Croat property that is being systematically destroyed in Bugojno. The Croat representatives told Ms. Rehn that remaining 1326 Croats in Bugojno were in a very difficult position. Local Moslem authorities made impossible for Croats to be active in politics or culture. They were also preventing Croat refugees to return. The Croat representatives quoted the Bugojno imam as saying that Croats could come back only if they might be totally servile, since Bugojno was always a Moslem town. The Croats claimed that Bugojno was the only town in the Croat-Moslem Federation where no transitional municipal council had been founded. Ms. Rehn said she would personally intercede for the discovery of the fate of 26 Croats who went missing from a Bugojno detention camp after the Croat-Moslem conflict broke out in 1993. Rehn was cautiously optimistic about the resolution of problems in Bugojno. She informed the Croat representatives that she had instigated activities concerning the return of 15,000 Bugojno Croats and concerning the protection of their remaining property in the town. (hina) jn mš 252201 MET nov 96