BOSNIAN POLICE ARREST SEVEN SUSPECTS FOR ATTACK ON SILAJDZIC

SARAJEVO, June 22 (Hina) - Bosnian Moslem police in the northwestern town of Bihac have arrested seven people suspected of being responsible for an attack on former Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic that took place at a political rally last weekend, a UN spokesman in Sarajevo said on Saturday. UN spokesman Alexandar Ivanko told a press conference that international police deployed in Bosnia-Herzegovina would continue to monitor the investigation into the incident to ensure that the perpetrators were punished accordingly. The UN special envoy to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iqbal Riza, on Friday demenaded from top Bosnian government and Federation officials to make every effort to prevent political violence, the spokesman said. The Bihac court sentenced Firzet Prosic to ten days in prison after the police established that he had shouted abuse against Islam and Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic at the rally of Silajdzic's Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina in the northwestern town of Cazin, which, according to the police, had provoked the incident. The Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina issued a statement on Friday saying that Bihac county head Mirsad Veladzic and his brother Edhem Veladzic, chief of the county police, were behind the incident which it described as an "assassination attempt." Speaking at a convention of his party in Sarajevo on Friday night, Silajdzic said that "there are many of those who want to impose their will, and they grow in the darkness and blood." Warning of attempts to carve up the country, Silajdzic stressed that after four years of suffering no one had the right to discuss a division of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The party rally was held against the noise of a power generator because moments before it started there was a blackout. The cause of the power cut was not explained. (hina) vm 221509 MET jun 96