PRESS CONFERENCE HELD BY BOSNIAN FEDERATION'S PRESIDENT ZUBAK

MOSTAR, Feb 8 (Hina) - President of the Federation of Bosnia- Herzegovina, Kresimir Zubak, said today that Bosnian Croats supported France's initiative for a meeting between Presidents Izetbegovic, Tudjman and Milosevic. "If the international community - the United Nations Security Council and European Union, were not behind this meeting, it would be ineffective," Zubak told a Mostar Press conference. Speaking of the international community's pressure on Bosnian Serbs to accept the Contact Group peace plan for Bosnia, Zubak said there were changes within the Serb political and national community indicating that they might adopt the plan. Commenting on the February 5 Munich meeting between the Bosnian Federation's and Croatia's officials, and representatives of the Five-Nation Contact Group, Zubak stressed that the Munich talks described the Bosnian Federation as a project in the interest of the international community. The Federation could pave the way towards peace, not only in Bosnia, but also in the entire region, according to Zubak. He said the crucial issue now was how to establish the Federation, since representatives of the Moslem (Bosniac) people would like the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina to be superior to the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is contrary to the Washington Accords and the Vienna Agreements. Zubak stressed the importance of the fact that the Bosniac side had accepted the involvement of US officers in the formation of joint armed force of the Federation. He advocated that the Federation's armed forces should be established on the principle of arrangements in the armies in the member-countries of NATO. In this context Zubak warned that there was "an emphasis on religious education" in some formations of the Bosnian Army, and such formations became "copies of armies in Islamic countries". Zubak told journalists that it had been agreed that Hague International Tribunal judges would involve themselves in the work of the Federation's Constitutional Court. Speaking of the plight of non-Serb population in the Banja Luka area, northwestern Bosnia, Zubak said the UN commander in Bosnia, General Rupert Smith "promised to establish a special UNPROFOR civilian affairs office in Banja Luka to help Croat and Bosniac citizens". (hina) sd mms 081407 MET feb 95