BOSNIAN GOVT RESPONSIBLE FOR SLOW AID DELIVERY - MURPHY

SARAJEVO, 28 Nov (Hina) - Spokesman for the Office of the High International Representative in Bosnia, Colum Murphy, on Thursday accused Bosnian Premier Hasan Muratovic of shifting responsibility for failures of Bosnian authorities to the international community. #L# Carl Bildt was still very concerned about statements Premier Muratovic had been giving lately, Murphy told reporters in Sarajevo. He added that the international community was not responsible for the slow delivery of means intended for the reconstruction of the country, stressing that the basic reason for the lack of organisation was the incompetence of local authorities. Recalling that Bosnia-Herzegovina had received an 'unprecedented' amount of aid, Murphy said that Bosnian authorities were responsible for the slow pace of reconstruction since they were not capable of leading economic policy and reaching agreement on the establishment of joint institutions. Local authorities were to blame for the fact that a year after the cessation of the war, the problem of water supply and lack of gas had not been solved, he said. Kris Janowski, spokesman for the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, said that his organisation was dissatisfied with the bureaucratic behaviour of Bosnian authorities. Many humanitarian organisations had been forced to stop delivering humanitarian aid to the most destitute part of Bosnia's population because they had been waiting for six months for Bosnian authorities to answer to the UNHCR request not to tax humanitarian aid. Janowski stressed that this had been UNHCR's practice during its cooperation with the Croatian oil company INA, while Bosnian authorities were refusing to implement decisions regulating the work of UNHCR agencies throughout the world. (hina) rm 281649 MET nov 96