WHAT BOUTROS-BOUTROS GHALI'S STATEMENT IN VIENNA SAID

Zagreb, March 1 (Hina) - A statement by UN Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, made in Vienna on Monday (Feb 27) after talks with Austrian Foreign Minister, Alois Mock, was carried in part by the Austrian News Agency, and has provoked comment and some negative reactions in Croatia and Slovenia. In order to avoid a possible erroneous interpretation of Boutros-Ghali's position, Hina today asked Ghali's office in Geneva for an official copy of his statement. We are releasing in full, part of Ghali's statement which deals with the former Yugoslavia: "May I also mention that I reaffirmed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Austria that we intend to maintain a strong presence of the United Nations in Vienna. We believe that Vienna is a very important centre for the United Nations. We discussed also the problem of the former Yugoslavia and we will do our best, firstly to continue negotiations in Yugoslavia because we believe that there is no way to find a solution to the problems of former Yugoslavia unless we will have a continued dialogue and secondly, we will do whatever ought to be done to maintain the United Nations forces in Yugoslavia because we believe that the presence of the United Nations forces in Yugoslavia will help us to contain the situation and will help us to achieve a peaceful solution of the problem. "I don't want to underestimate the difficulties. The difficulties are there. We received a demand from Zagreb asking to withdraw the United Nations forces by March 31. We are under pressure of certain members saying that if they will stop the embargo on arms to Bosnia they will withdraw the troops. So we have problems, and we don't want to underestimate those problems. But I want to assure you that there is a political will in the United Nations and in the international community to continue our presence in Yugoslavia. Our military presence, our diplomatic presence, our economic presence, because very few people mention what we are trying to do for the reconstruction. We have a special coordinator dealing with the reconstruction of Sarajevo. We are trying to prepare the reconstruction of all former Yugoslavia and we will be successful in spite of all the difficulties, in spite of all the criticism, because there is no other solution in former Yugoslavia than continued negotiations. Through these continued negotiations we will be able to find a comprehensive solution to this tragedy in the middle of Europe and in the middle of the Balkans." (Hina) mm sd as 011946 MET mar 95