NATO-LED PEACE FORCE CONFIRMS MOSTAR INCIDENT

MOSTAR, SARAJEVO, Feb 10 (Hina) - Three persons were injured, of whom two seriously, in a confrontation between Moslems and Croats at a cemetery in Croat-controlled west Mostar on Monday afternoon, a spokesman for the NATO- led Stabilization Force (SFOR) said in Mostar. SFOR spokesman Mike Fabbro could not say whether it had been an armed conflict or specify the nationality of the injured. He said that rival groups threw stones at one another and that an international police officer was slightly hurt. After the incident in the afternoon, several SFOR armoured vehicles were patrolling the main Bulevar street which divides the town into Moslem and Croat halves. Several times during the day Croat-run radio in west Mostar called on the residents to stay indoors. SFOR officials in Sarajevo confirmed that a grave incident had happened in Mostar in which several people had been hurt. An SFOR spokesman said that Croats had opened small arms fire on a group of Moslems visiting a Moslem cemetery in west Mostar to mark the Moslem holiday of Ramadan Bayram. He added that three persons had been wounded in the incident, of whom two seriously. The spokesman said that an unidentified group of people opened fire at the Moslems as they were trying to cross the former line of separation. SFOR troops were sent to the scene to help defuse the situation. UN spokesman Alexander Ivanko said that four people had reportedly been wounded and that, according to unconfirmed information, one of them had died. Ivanko said that a large group of armed Croats were gathering outside the Ero Hotel in central Mostar in the afternoon and that a similar gathering was sighted in the Moslem-held eastern part of town. (hina) vm mm 101820 MET feb 97