ASSOCIATED LIST OF UNSKO-SANSKI CANTON

SDP AND SDA EXCHANGING BULLETS

AIM Bihac, August 20 - Regular press conference of the Associated List for B&H held in Bihac began with presentation of data concerning confiscated propagandist material - five thousand leaflets and 349 posters which still have not been returned.

"I have just come from the talks with the Minister of police of Unsko-Sanski Canton, Edhem Veladzic, who had promised that the confiscated material would be returned today, but not all of it, because the policeman who was on duty, irritated by the contents which was described as being turned against the ruling party by the official note, scattered the leaflets around the office which the cleaning woman swept away in the morning", stated Mirsad Mujanovic, head of the election staff of the Associated List for Unsko-Sanski canton.

According to Mujanovic's words, along with the promise that the material would be returned, Minister Veladzic recommended that the contents be carefully reconsidered so as not to irritate the citizens.

"However, next Friday we will have a new leaflet. We will continue to present our stances in the manner we see fit. We are sufficiently educated, and even more patriotic and we wish our state well. We wish to have a European state and it is our duty to use all the permissible and democratic means in the struggle for what we wish", Mujanovic said.

Then he established a connection between the confiscated leaflets and the breaking into the office in which only the mentioned leaflets were taken, which was duly reported to the police.

The second part of the press conference was devoted to the reactions of the Associated List to the statement of Alaga Ajdinovic, President of the SDA in Bihac, at the pre-election gathering in Izacic held on August 14 with the title "Be proud Izacic", when he said that the SDA was supplying armament for defence against aggressors, and that he would eat every bullet provided by the opposition. To this statement of Alaga Ajdinovic, President of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and head of the election staff of the Associated List of the Canton, Mirsad Mujanovic answered by saying:

"I myself will eat every bullet which was shot from the trenches by the President of the SDA Bihac Alaga Ajdinovic. I believe that there is no divisions concerning defence of the country. Bosnia & Herzegovina was defended by its citizens. It is ugly to count participants and contributions because that would lead us to counting the dead, too. It is a fact that the aid in armament and defence of B&H was arriving from abroad, and the fact that the ruling party identified with the people is a separate issue. If we wish to count who is who, the SDA can take the officers, but the combatants are ours", said Mujanovic.

To a question of a journalist on the stance of the Associated List concerning participation of Fikret Abdic in the elections, Mujanovic referred back to 1987 when Fikret Abdic was a criminal and that was the stance of the communists who were legally inherited by the Social Democrats. "Those who are in power nowadays have transformed Fikret Abdic into a political martyr, created his charisma, and won the previous elections together with him, and then in 1993 broke up with him, so we believe that the state of B&H should not have allowed Fikret, from the aspect of international organizations, to be given legitimacy to appear in the elections. Fikret Abdic is a citizen of B&H, the state should have done everything to eliminate him from political life and to sentence him. There is no room for his party, according to our opinion, in the territory of B&H. Abdic was a member of the Presidency as a representative of the SDA, not a single member of the SDP has gone with Fikret to construct the autonomy, so we have nothing to do with him. The question about Fikret should be posed elsewhere". Mujanovic added also that members of the Bihac municipal council from the SDP would not participate in the activities of the Council because of the global attitude towards the SDP in Bihac, and especially concerning confiscation of the propagandist material.