GARROD STRESSES IMPORTANCE OF FOUNDING MOSTAR MUNICIPAL COUNCILS ( Editorial: --> 1763 )

( Editorial: --> 1763 ) MOSTAR, Nov 18 (Hina) - The head of the International High Representative's regional office in Mostar, Martin Garrod, told Tuesday's news conference it was necessary to establish six municipal councils in the town and the Mostar City Council as soon as possible, as well as to elect a new mayor and deputy mayor. These were priorities in the resolution of political problems in Mostar, Garrod said, warning about the standstill in the implementation of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Constitution. The Constitution envisaged a change of the Canton prefect and his deputy by 22 October at the latest, but even three weeks after the deadline, the changes had not happened, he said. Garrod was asked to comment on a recent open letter by the Association of Families of Missing Bugojno Croats. The letter accused him of covering up the truth about a group of Bugojno Croats who had gone missing in the summer and autumn of 1993, as Garrod had been an EU official in Zenica (central Bosnia-Herzegovina) at the time, and had visited a detention camp in Bugojno where the group had been taken. Garrod denied the accusations, adding that he had arrived in Zenica in mid-October 1993 and had not entered Bugojno before the Bugojno Croats had disappeared, nor had he visited the camp in which they were held. The letter had been published as propaganda in order to create mistrust between himself and Croats and between Croats and the international community, and to create divisions, Garrod said. UN spokeswoman in Mostar, Kelly Moore, on Tuesday accused local authorities and the police in certain areas of obstructing movement control. In Stolac, Moore said, local authorities had last week charged tolls to drivers at the line of separation between the two entities, and the local police had obstructed freedom of movement. She also recalled Nevesinje, where the local police were checking documents and luggage of passengers on UNHCR buses. (hina) lm 181839 MET nov 97