U.N. CONSIDERS OSCE OFFICIALS BLOCKED IN BANJA LUKA TO BE SERB HOS

HOS $ TAGES SARAJEVO/BANJA LUKA, June 18 (Hina) - The International Police considered the two officials of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), blocked on Monday by a large group of civilians in the OSCE Office in Banja Luka, to be Serb hostages and demanded a decisive action so that they might be freed, UN spokesman Aleksandar Ivanko told a press conference in Banja Luka on Tuesday. Ivanko said that the International Police forces had organized continual patrolling around the building of the OSCE Office and that a special crisis-headquarters had been set to solve the problem. A group of civilians, mainly women, blocked the entrance to the building hosting the OSCE regional office in Banja Luka, thus preventing the head of the office and his deputy to come out and not letting anyone in either. Several dozens civilians on Tuesday told reporters that they demanded that members of their families be freed or that information about them be made known. They would not move until their conditions were met and demanded talks with Deputy High Representative for the Implementation of the Peace Agreement, Michael Steiner. In front of the building there are also some Serb policemen observing the goings-on from afar, but not doing anything to clear the blockade. Ivanko warned that some of the people blocking the entrance had "Molotov cocktails". (hina) ha jn 181728 MET jun 96