CONFERENCE ON ANTIPERSONNEL MINES CLOSES

( Editorial: --> 3082 ) BUDAPEST, Mar 28 (Hina) - A three-day regional conference on antipersonnel mines closed in Budapest Saturday. In a final declaration, the conference, which gathered 19 countries, called on the entire international community to assist countries, including Croatia, whose soil is planted with antipersonnel mines. The participants concluded that assistance should be not only financial, but technical, in order to facilitate the mine-clearing process, and should also focus on developing education programmes for the population of areas with mine-fields. The conference suggested that all member-countries ratify a convention signed in Ottawa, which bans the manufacturing, usage and storing of antipersonnel mines, as soon as possible. The participants okayed a proposal by Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs that Germany and Hungary cooperate with the governments of Croatia, and probably Norway, in a joint project of mine-clearing in one part of eastern Croatia. The head of the Croatian Foreign Ministry's Department for Peace and Security, Ranko Vilovic, said it was positive that such conferences took place every year and suggested that Croatia chair one next year. (hina) ha 281943 MET mar 98