US TO CONTINUE PRESSURE AGAINST BOSNIAN CROATS & MUSLIMS

( Editorial: --> 3252 ) SARAJEVO, March 29 (Hina) - The US embassy in Sarajevo released a statement on Sunday saying the United States remains dissatisfied with the progress made to date in the implementation of the Dayton and Washington agreements. Commenting on a statement by the Croat member of the Bosnian Presidency, Kresimir Zubak, given after his meeting with the US President's special envoy Robert Gelbard, the embassy said the meeting was unpleasant because Zubak and other officials of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) showed no interest in progress for the Federation. During the meeting, the embassy said, Zubak actually negated the continuation of existence of pre-Dayton institutions of Herzeg- Bosna. The embassy recalled that President Clinton himself had warned about the need to remove those institutions during his meeting with Zubak in December last year. The United States is still dissatisfied with the progress that has been made in the implementation of this very important aspect of the Dayton and Washington agreements, and will continue to exert pressure both on Croats and Bosniaks in order to make them remove all parallel institutions so that the Federation government could function in an adequate way, the statement concluded. (hina) rm 292041 MET mar 98