ARBITRATION COMMISSION FOR BRCKO TO HOLD SESSION ON DEC.8

SARAJEVO, Dec (Hina) - Following Sunday's statement of Bosnian Serbs that they were withdrawing from the arbitration procedure for Brcko, arbitration commission members Roberts Owen and Cazim Sadikovic said on Tuesday that the republic of Srpska (Serb entity) had accepted fully, by signing the Dayton Agreement Annex, to participate in the arbitration procedure for the strategic Bosnian town on the right bank of the Sava River. During the Dayton negotiations last year no agreement was reached on whether Brcko should belong to the Moslem-Croat Federation or to Serb entity. U.S. diplomat Owen and the Federation representative Sadikovic issued a statement saying that a Bosnian Serb representative had not participated in any of the commission's three meetings signaling clearly that the republic of Srpska intended to violate commitments it had assumed. Owen and Sadikovic stressed that the arbitration procedure would continue on the grounds of the international law (UNCITRAL provisions). The U.S. diplomat convened a new meeting of the commission for December 8, and voiced a hope that the Serb representative Vitomir Popovic also would take part in it. (hina) mm mš 031739 MET dec 96