FILIPOVIC COMMENTS ON SETUP OF BOSNIAN FEDERATION ARMY

NOVI TRAVNIK, March 25 (Hina) - The commander of the joint armed forces of the Bosnian Croat-Moslem federation, Major General Filip Filipovic, said on Monday that as he was not authorized to assess the process of implementing civilian provisions of the Dayton peace agreement so High Representative for civilian affairs Carl Bildt was not competent to assess the establishment of federal armed forces. Commenting on Bildt's statements to foreign media on upset relations between the Bosnian army and the Croat Defence Council (HVO) and Bildt's doubts about the setup of the federal army, Filipovic said that such statements were a result of "a schematic approach to the establishment of the federal army, which is typical of a large number of international factors in Bosnia- Herzegovina." "International representatives try to simplify problems in order to overcome them more easily so that they see the federal army as a unified organism and forget the dualism of the the Federation as a condition for its existence and the existence of the Bosnian Croats," he said. Filipovic added that some of the Bosnian army leaders also made such a mistake, "trying to erase the HVO's identity in order to absorb it." "This could be a crucial mistake in the process of creating the federal army because the HVO will not agree to lose the identity it has fought for over the past four years," he said. Filipovic said that the relations between the Bosnian army and the HVO would not deteriorate and the establishment of the federal army would not be in question if the dualism was taken into account. (hina) vm 251856 MET mar 96