CROATIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY REPORT ON GRANIC-SILAJDZIC TALKS

ZAGREB, Nov 15 (Hina) - Following the talks in Sarajevo on November 12, the trustees of President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mate Granic and Haris Silajdzic respectively, signed a Joint Declaration in which they assumed commitments to "prepare and organize an urgent meeting of the highest political and military officials of the Bosnian Army and the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) within five to seven days in order to reach an overall agreement on all issues concerning a cease-fire and the final cessation of all hostilities and military operations." The signing of the Joint Declaration was witnessed by Turkish Foreign Minister Hikmet Cetin. The contents of the talks, according to a report issued by the Croatian Foreign Ministry on Monday, confirm that both sides see such an agreement as a chance to fully review and coordinate the concept and instruments of the implementation of an overall and lasting solution to relations between the Croats and Moslems/Bosnians in the Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina. ... International circumstances also confirm the need that both parties should make efforts to arrive at such an agreement. It is to the interest of the Republic of Croatia and the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, says the report, to prevent a possible continuation of war and avert a danger to the strategic interests of the Republic of Croatia (in national, state, geostrategic and military terms). Such an agreement is to the interest of the leadership of Bosnian Moslems/Bosnians to end in a peaceful way and by peaceful means the process of the realistic formation of the central Bosnian republic in the Union as part of the international community is trying by the provocative prolongation of the Croat-Moslem/Bosnian conflict to prolong the conflict in order to gradually eliminate the Bosnian Moslems, said the Croatian Foreign Ministry report. 152109 MET nov 93