BILDT URGES DEPLOYMENT OF ADDITIONAL INTERNATIONAL POLICE TO BRCKO

SARAJEVO, March 11 (Hina) - The international High Representative to Bosnia- Herzegovina, Carl Bildt, sent a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday urging the Security Council to pass a resolution on the deployment of additional international police forces to the disputed northern Bosnian town of Brcko. Bildt's demand came after last week's high-level conference in Vienna which had decided that 200 international police would be sent to Brcko to ensure respect for the law and human rights. Bildt's spokesman, Colum Murphy, said in Sarajevo on Tuesday that he expected that an additional 120 international observers would be sent there to participate in investigations into human rights abuses. Murphy said that the office of the High Representative continued to insist that three police officers designated as responsible for the February 10 incidents in the southern city of Mostar be arrested and brought to trial. A spokesman for the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR), Tony White, said on Tuesday that SFOR troops continued stepped-up patrols in Mostar and that on Sunday they had removed nine illegal checkpoints, eight of which had been put up by Croat police and one by Moslem, to ensure full freedom of movement. (hina) vm 111327 MET mar 97