MOSTAR, June 13 (Hina) - Leaders of a Croat Defence Council (HVO) negotiating team on Wednesday confirmed that negotiations had failed with the Bosnian Croat-Muslim Federation's defence ministry on the return of (Croat) soldiers to
barracks. Chief negotiators - Lieutenant General Dragan Curcic, Major General Zlatan Mijo Jelic and Brigadier Mario Bradara, again blamed the Defence Minister of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mijo Anic, for this failure and for attempts to annul the Croat component and merge it completely with the Bosniak (Muslim) component. A 16 May agreement envisages the return of Croat soldiers in the barracks and the guarantees that the independent Croat military component will survive, but this has not been materialised so far, the HVO high-ranking officers claimed. They added that since the conclusion of the agreement Minister Anic and the ruling coalition 'Alliance for Chan
MOSTAR, June 13 (Hina) - Leaders of a Croat Defence Council (HVO)
negotiating team on Wednesday confirmed that negotiations had
failed with the Bosnian Croat-Muslim Federation's defence ministry
on the return of (Croat) soldiers to barracks.
Chief negotiators - Lieutenant General Dragan Curcic, Major
General Zlatan Mijo Jelic and Brigadier Mario Bradara, again blamed
the Defence Minister of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mijo
Anic, for this failure and for attempts to annul the Croat component
and merge it completely with the Bosniak (Muslim) component.
A 16 May agreement envisages the return of Croat soldiers in the
barracks and the guarantees that the independent Croat military
component will survive, but this has not been materialised so far,
the HVO high-ranking officers claimed.
They added that since the conclusion of the agreement Minister Anic
and the ruling coalition 'Alliance for Changes' continued to sack
persons from military services and refused to pay them salaries.
They also accused the Alliance and Anic of exerting pressure and
setting up structures of political parties inside the ministry and
the Army of the Federation.
"None of us have the right to allow the deconstruction of the HVO as
a military force of the Croat people in Bosnia-Herzegovina, nor do
we have the right to accept the imposed degree of uniting the forces
which is being carried out beyond all the reached agreements," read
their statement.
On Tuesday Defence Minister Mijo Anic dismissed claims that talks
on the return of Croat soldiers to the Federation Army's Croat
component had failed.
The process is proceeding as planned and will be completed by June
15, he told reporters in Sarajevo yesterday
"The talks have not failed and as far as the Defence Ministry is
concerned they won't fail," Anic said commenting on a statement
issued the day before in Mostar.
Instead of a conference which was to be held by General Zlatan Mijo
Jelic and Brigadier Mario Bradara in Mostar on Monday, reporters
were given an unsigned statement of a "negotiating team" of "self-
disbanded" members of the Federation Army accusing Minister Anic of
the failure to consolidate Croat units, which they said was caused
by unacceptable political demands.
The minister was particularly accused of trying to appoint officers
"loyal to the Alliance (for Changes)" to all commanding posts.
On the other hand, Croat soldiers began leaving the barracks after
the Croat National Congress (led by the political party Croatian
Democratic Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina or HDZ BiH) earlier this
year urged its followers to boycott the constitution of new
authorities in the wake of the last elections and called on soldiers
to show disobedience towards the new minister Mijo Anic.
(hina) sb ms