NATO COMMISSION TO RECOMMEND FURTHER INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE IN B-H

SARAJEVO, March 21 (Hina) - The situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina is still more like a truce than peace which can hold and it is very likely that, without the presence of the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR), clashes would have resumed, the chairman of the NATO commission for civilian affairs, Gian Giacomo Migone, said in Sarajevo on Friday. Migone headed a ten-member delegation of parliamentary representatives from eight NATO member states at a meeting between Bosnian and international officials in Sarajevo. He stressed that the currently unstable situation showed that the remaining time before the expiry of the SFOR mandate should be used for undertaking steps to consolidate the peace and step up the reconstruction of the country and the building of democratic institutions. Migone said that forthcoming elections were a chance for the government bodies of Bosnia-Herzegovina to transform from autocratic into democratic institutions. A member of the commission, Wim Van Eekelen, said that a report by the commission on the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which would be submitted to the NATO Assembly, would contain a recommendation that the international community should maintain a permanent presence in Bosnia-Herzegovina. (hina) vm jn 211815 MET mar 97