AGREEMENT REACHED IN MOSTAR

AIM Mostar, August 6, 1996

After four days and three nights of tedious negotiations, the Croat and the Muslim party finally reached an agreement on resolution of the crisis in Mostar on Tuesday, at 14.00 h. They put their signatures on the plan Joint Action which prescribes a new form of presence of the European Union in Mostar which will remain there until the end of the year.

Pursuant the reached agreement the City Council will finally meet on August 8, and the Mayor will be a Croat while his depity will be a Bosniac, and they will both be obliged to cooperate with the European Union and its special envoy, Sir Martin Garrod. The mayor will be a Croat because the governor of the Neretva Canton will be a Bosniac. The City Council of Mostar, after the election of the mayor will meet again only after the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina reaches a decision on regularity of June Mostar elections, against which the Croat Democratic Community of Bosnia & Herzegovina filed a compaint.

Exactly because of that demand made by the Croats, negotiations had been interrupted. But, finally, the demand had been adopted and the Croat party put its signature on the agreement.

After that, the current mayor of the western part of the city of Mostar, Mijo Brajkovic, who will in the future probably exercise the function of the one and only mayor, declared that this agreement enabled the process of regulating the city pursuant the Dayton Accords which does not mean just establishment of the City Council but also constitution of six municipalities - three with Croat and three with Bosniac majority population.