ESTABLISHMENT OF MOSTAR JOINT POLICE FORCE BEGINS

MOSTAR, June 17 (Hina) - Representatives of the regional offices of international organisations in southern Bosnia-Herzegovina held a news conference in Mostar on Tuesday on the beginning of the establishment of a joint Croat-Moslem police force in the Hercegovina-Neretva canton and an unexpectedly low rate of refugee returns from Western European countries. UN spokeswoman Kelly Moore informed reporters about Monday's first meeting of cantonal interior minister Valentin Coric and his deputy Sefkija Djiho and International Police Task Force (IPTF) officials. They discussed the distribution of officer posts, training and equipment of police officers, and the provision of security for joint police headquarters in Mostar's central district, Moore said. The head of the regional office of the international High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Martin Garrod, said he was satisfied that the establishment of the joint cantonal police force had begun. Dhanapala Sivanka of the UNHCR Mostar office said that only 4,320 out of an anticipated 23,000 refugees had returned to southern Bosnia- Herzegovina by mid-June, or nine per cent of the UNHCR's forecasts for this year. The fewest returned to the Western Herzegovina canton and the Serb entity while most of them, 1,124, returned to central Bosnia. (hina) vm jn 171605 MET jun 97