OLD REGISTRATION PLATES PROHIBITED AS OF SUNDAY MIDNIGHT - WESTENDORP

WESTENDORP ( Editorial: --> 7732 ) SARAJEVO, May 30 (Hina) - All vehicles without joint Bosnian registration plates will not be allowed to cross Bosnian borders as of midnight on Sunday, May 31, High Representative in Bosnia- Herzegovina Carlos Westendorp said on Saturday. In a statement issued in Sarajevo, Westendorp states that all vehicles registered in Bosnia-Herzegovina not only have to have united registration plates but also united registration cards. Interior Minister of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mehmed Zilic, has ordered all police stations to as of June 1 exclude from traffic all vehicles with registration cards which were issued upon instructions by the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Interior Minister Valentin Coric. According to today's issue of the Sarajevo daily "Oslobodjenje", Coric has ordered that registration cards be printed without Cyrillic names, which questions equality of both scripts in Bosnia- Herzegovina. Along with the name of Bosnia-Herzegovina those registration cards also bear the name of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton. According to Zilic, the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton has exercised a right which, according to the Bosnian Constitution, does not belong to it. Similar changes were planned on registration cards to be issued in Herceg-Bosna, Western Herzegovina and Posavina cantons, and to a part in Central Bosnia and Zenica-Doboj cantons, "Oslobodjenje" says. (hina) rml 301656 MET may 98