HIGH REPRESENTATIVE ADVOCATES CONTINUED NATO PRESENCE IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO/BRUSSELS, April 19 (Hina) - The international community's High Representative in Bosnia has requested NATO member-countries to ensure the continuation of military presence in Bosnia, saying it is imperative for the peace process to become stronger. High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch addressed a NATO Permanent Council session in Brussels on Thursday, stating it was NATO's peace-keeping Stabilisation Force (SFOR) that undermined intimidating nationalist messages promoting division, his office in Sarajevo said. Arguing for continued military presence, Petritsch also pointed to SFOR's contribution to a considerable progress as far as refugee returns were concerned, including in problematic areas such as eastern Bosnia. Last year almost 67,000 refugees returned to areas in Bosnia where they represent an ethnic minority, which is twice as many as in 1999, the High Representative told the NATO session. He maintains the international community is successful in Bosnia, Croatia, and Yugoslavia when it is unanimous in stating that these three countries must cooperate with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, that borders can no longer be discussed, and that the bloody nationalism of the 1990s will no longer be tolerated. In debating the general state of affairs in Bosnia, the NATO Permanent Council gave full support to the High Representative's plans to stamp out the policy of the Croatian Democratic Union party's hard-line faction, corruption, the existence of parallel structures of authority, as well as to plans to ensure full compliance with the Dayton peace accords. (hina) ha