AKASHI ON BOSNIAN GOVT FORCES INCIDENT NEAR MT IGMAN

ZAGREB, Oct 8, (Hina) - UN Special Envoy, Yasushi Akashi has defended UNPROFOR responses to an incident on Thursday near M Igman in which 20 Bosnian Serb soldiers, including four nurses, were killed. Yesterday Bosnian President Izetbegovic sought an apology for from Akashi over UN responses to the incident. But Akashi in a statement described UNPROFOR responses as appropriate and timely given the sensitive situation in Sarajevo. "We are disturbed by the intensity of the assault by the Bosnian Government forces at a time of positive developments on the ground in Sarajevo," Akashi said. "I accept that contrary to initial reports, subsequent investigations have revealed that none of the bodies were mutilated." Akashi said that because of the incident, and the continued presence of Bosnian Government forces in the de-militarized zones over the past two weeks, he protested to Izetbegovic. Akashi said that Izetbegovic had confirmed that none of his forces should be in the zone. Akashi said the August 14, 1993 agreement was quite clear in its intent that no element from the parties to the conflict should be in the demilitarised zone, that is, the areas vacated by Bosnian Serb forces. But Izetbegovic said yesterday that the August agreement had not been broken and that his forces were not in the de-militarized zone. (Hina) jas sd 081128 MET oct 94