950824

Indonesia to

press Bosnia peace

initiative

JAKARTA: Indonesia's President Suharto, as head of the 112-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), will go ahead with a Bosnian peace initiative despite an upsurge of fighting, a senior Indonesian diplomat said on Thursday.

Nana Sutresna, the NAM chairman's executive assistant, said the leaders of Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia had all reconfirmed their willingness to take part in the initiative during a recent trip Sutresna made to the Balkans.

"The initiative, in essence, is that we believe the problems of the former Yugoslavia are so complex that the problem can only be solved through a meeting and an agreement of the leaders of the former Yugoslavia themselves without external interference whatsoever," Sutresna told a news conference.

Sutresna visited the former Yugoslavia earlier this month on a third round of shuttle diplomacy to pursue the initiative, proposed after Suharto visited Croatia and Bosnia in March.

"Indonesia is prepared to act as facilitator for that meeting (but) in no way are our efforts aimed at making ourselves a mediator for the problem," he said.

While Jakarta had been suggested as a venue for such a meeting, Sutresna said there was no firm site or timetable for the meeting.

Another, more technical, meeting would be held in the near future which would recommend a schedule, which would be forwarded to Suharto. He gave no details on the meeting.

Sutresna said Indonesia was consulting other parties working on a peace solution in the former Yugoslavia, including the five-nation Contact Group made up of the United States, Russia, France, Germany and Britian.

"They regard our efforts not in competition with their efforts and we feel the same way," he said.-Reuter