B. FEDERATION WILL DEFEND ITS RIGHT TO BRCKO - IZETBEGOVIC

SARAJEVO, Dec 18 (Hina) - President of the Presidency of Bosnia- Herzegovina Alija Izetbegovic said on Wednesday that Bosnia would under no conditions give up the request for a just solution to the status of Brcko (town in northern Bosnia). The Dayton Agreement envisages that the decision about which entity Brcko would belong to should be made by the Arbitrary Commission within a year. The Serb side has recently withdrawn from the work of the Arbitration Commission, leaving in it only a Bosnian Federation representative and an international mediator. #L# "Our right to Brcko is quite clear and we will defend it primarily through arbitration. I think that we cannot lose," Izetbegovic told the Bosnia-Herzegovina Television. He recalled that even the signing of the Dayton Agreement had at one point been brought into question because of the status of Brcko. Izetbegovic warned that a decision which would not recognize the fact that Brcko was a town with a Croat and Moslem majority would give rise to chaos in Bosnia. Commenting recent statements made by the president of the Serb entity, Biljana Plavsic, that Republika Srpska was prepared to enter a new war if Brcko went to the Bosnian federation, Izetbegovic said that such threats were aimed at primarily intimidating the international community, but also her own people. "We are now stronger and if a war for Brcko should really break out, there would be no doubt as to who would win it," Izetbegovic said. (hina) lm mm 182121 MET dec 96