BOSNIAN CROAT RETURNEE DIES AFTER BEING SEVERELY BEATEN

SARAJEVO/TRAVNIK, Sept 11 (Hina) - A Bosnian Croat returnee has died after being severely beaten outside his home near the central Bosnian town of Travnik, the office of the Croat member of the three-man Bosnian presidency, Kresimir Zubak, said in a statement on Thursday. The incident happened in the village of Kokosari on Tuesday when Jure Jelonic and his brother Vinko were attacked by two pitchfork-wielding Moslems. Jure died later on as a result of grave injuries. Zubak's office warned that it was the fourth murder which showed that "Croat appeals, protests and warnings to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Office of the High Representative, the International Police Task Force, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the ambassadors of Contact Group member states and other international organisations, have failed to bear fruit, definitively showing the unwillingness of the responsible authorities in Travnik to ensure minimum security for the citizens of Croat nationality." The office said it had sent a letter to NATO-led peace force commander Gen. Eric Shinseki demanding that NATO troops guarantee security of citizens in that area. The government of the Central Bosnia canton held an emergency session on Thursday ordering its competent ministry to take all legal steps to bring the perpetrators to justice. The head of the Travnik municipal government based in Nova Bila, Tomislav Rajic, sent a letter to the Bosnian presidency and the OSCE mission, saying that Moslem police in Travnik, in cooperation with international police, had failed to solve any of the four murder cases. (hina) vm 111939 MET sep 97