U.N. CHIEF RECOMMENDS EXTENSION OF U.N. MANDATE IN PREVLAKA

WASHINGTON, July 3 (Hina) - UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros- Ghali on Wednesday proposed to the Security Council to extend the mandate of UN observers deployed on the Prevlaka peninsula of southern Croatia for another three months. The current UN mandate expires on July 15. Since no other international or regional organization, including the OSCE and the EU Monitoring Mission, has shown willingness to monitor the area permanently, I recommend that the UNMOP mandate be extended for three months until 15 October 1996, Boutros-Ghali said in a statment. The Security Council was expected to pass a resolution next week extending the mandate. Boutros-Ghali called on Croatia and Serb-led Yugoslavia to continue negotiations on normalization of relations. He estimated that the situation in the Prevlaka area had improved over the past few months. Mine fields have been cleared and roadblocks removed in the so-called blue zone but there are still positions held by Croatian special police and Yugoslav checkpoints. In the wider, "yellow zone", both sides have withdrawn their heavy weapons but the Yugoslav side prevented UN peronnel from verifying compliance. The Secretary General said that the presence of troops and heavy weapons in areas close to the demilitarized zone posed a risk of the escalation of tension in the region. (hina) vm 032325 MET jul 96