BOSNIAN CROAT VETERANS ASSOCIATIONS CONDEMN ARRESTS

MOSTAR, Sept 22 (Hina) - All Croat Homeland War associations from Bosnia-Herzegovina on Friday requested Croat officials in the state, federal and cantonal bodies of authority to condemn the apprehension of former Croat soldiers and warned they would not tolerate "forced democracy" for very long. The head of the U.N. Mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jacques Paul Klein, believes the arrested former members of the Croat Defence Council (HVO) Ivan Andabak, Dominik Ilijasevic, Zoran Basic and Zeljko Cosic are the most responsible persons for last year's assassination of Croat-Muslim Federation Deputy Interior Minister Jozo Leutar. Leutar suffered serious injuries in a car-bomb blast in downtown Sarajevo on March 16 and died in hospital a month later. "Your silence can be understood as your approval or fear for your positions. We still hope that you will issue a statement because the people, especially Homeland War participants, will not tolerate this forced democracy or, better said, the testing of democracy on Homeland War participants and even victims," read a letter by a coordination gathering Homeland War associations. The letter was sent to the Croat member of the BH Presidency, the President of the Croat-Muslim Federation, the BH Council of Ministers, the Federation Government and cantonal ministers, as well as to representatives in the federal and state parliament. The coordination also warned that its members would not support the re-election of incumbent officials. (hina) rml