Muslim plea over Mostar

Bosnia's Muslim-led government demanded international action against Croatia yesterday to overcome a crisis in the divided city of Mostar that is threatening Bosnia's first post-war elections next month.

Bosnia's Prime Minister, Hasan Muratovic, told a meeting of Islamic countries in Geneva: "This is the last moment for the international community to direct its activity towards the Republic of Croatia to bring about the implementation of what it signed [in the Dayton peace agreement]."

Croat political leaders in Mostar, supported by President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia, have refused to accept the results of municipal elections in June that gave a narrow victory to their Muslim rivals. The Croats have boycotted what was supposed to be a newly united city council, thereby perpetuating Mostar's division into Croat and Muslim sectors.

International mediators say that, if the Croat boycott is allowed to continue, it will discredit the all-Bosnian elections on 14 September. Even without the Croat boycott, the elections are likely to be flawed because of Bosnian Serb opposition to fundamental elements of the Dayton agreement.

Mr Muratovic appealed to the outside world to freeze economic relations with Croatia as punishment for its refusal to make the Bosnian Croats dissolve their self-styled state of Herzeg-Bosnia. The Dayton agreement stipulated Herzeg-Bosnia's abolition, and Bosnian Muslims say the Croats' non-compliance threatens to destroy the Muslim-Croat federation, designed as a cornerstone of the peace deal.

The European Union, which has administered Mostar since 1994, intends to pull out next Sunday unless the Bosnian Croats agree to join the city council. But EU officials and mediators such as Michael Steiner, the deputy international High Representative for Bosnia, doubt that the Bosnian Croats will budge unless prodded by Mr Tudjman.