O.I.K. TO RECONSIDER ECONOMIC RELATIONS WITH CERTAIN COUNTRIES

GENEVA, Jan 17 (Hina) - Countries of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) will reconsider their economic relations with the governments that continued to obstruct efforts to reach a viable solution in Bosnia-Herzegovina and whose policies rewarded the aggressor, said the organization's foreign ministers in a joint declaration issued at a meeting in Geneva on Monday. Asked at a press conference to specify the countries hampering a settlement in Bosnia, the OIK's secretary-general Hamid Alghabid replied that the message was clear and that everyone could read it as they liked. The declaration calls for "an end of Croatia's involvement in Bosnia-Herzegovina." Otherwise, the OIK ministers will request that the UN Security Council impose sanctions on Croatia. They also demand that sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro be not lifted until a final solution has been found. The OIK ministers claim that an arms embargo on Bosnia is contrary to Article 51 of the UN Charter, and support NATO to carry out air strikes against Serb positions in Bosnia. Some OIK member states offered to contribute their armed forces to the UN peace mission in Bosnia, but were awaiting the UN's final decision, said Alghabid. He reiterated that the OIK countries supported Bosnia-Herzegovina as an independent and sovereign state, and stressed that only the Bosnian leadership could decide on partitioning the country. 171943 MET jan 94