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Demilitarisation could bring peace: Dubrovnik mayor

DUBROVNIK(Croatia): Croatia hopes sporadic Serb shelling on the Dubrovnik coast can be halted by a negotiated withdrawal of Bosnian Serbs from its hinterland or "by demilitarisation by both sides", the city mayor said on Monday.

Mayor Nikola Obuljen told a news conference he expected that the current U.S. peace initiative for Bosnia would take account of the Dubrovnik problem and that Croatia was willing to give the process time to work.

"I haven't seen the plan but if a peaceful solution is going to be found for Bosnia-Herzegovina, it will take this area too into account," Obuljen said. Dubrovnik is only 15 km (nine miles) from the border with Serb-held Bosnia.

"What the solution is going to be I cannot say. It can be a kind of demilitarisation on both sides, it can be withdrawal, or some other solution," he said.

The mayor said the municipal authorities would decide in the next two or three days whether to lift a state of emergency which has been in effect for most of this month as a result of shelling of surrounding areas.-Reuter