Pale, Bosnia; 11 June 1997 (RFE/RL) - The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe today shut down all four voter registration centers in the disputed Bosnian town of Brcko until further notice.
OSCE spokesman David Foley told reporters in the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Pale today that registration of voters in Brcko is invalid due to what he termed pervasive violations of rules and regulations regarding voter registration.
OSCE is due to supervise local elections in Bosnia in September.
Brcko straddles a narrow corridor linking the two main parts of the Bosnian Serb entity. The town had a Muslim majority before the war, but now is overwhelmingly Serb with some 50,000 ethnic Serbian refugees from other parts of Bosnia and Croatia living in Brcko.
The town's fate is to be decided by international arbitration.
Foley says some people who tried to register to vote in Brcko offered documents bearing addresses of completely destroyed and uninhabited villages. He says others who tried to register, later admitted to having just stepped off the bus from Belgrade and were unable to even describe the house they allegedly lived in.
OSCE spokesman David Foley told reporters in the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Pale today that registration of voters in Brcko is invalid due to what he termed pervasive violations of rules and regulations regarding voter registration.
OSCE is due to supervise local elections in Bosnia in September.
Brcko straddles a narrow corridor linking the two main parts of the Bosnian Serb entity. The town had a Muslim majority before the war, but now is overwhelmingly Serb with some 50,000 ethnic Serbian refugees from other parts of Bosnia and Croatia living in Brcko.
The town's fate is to be decided by international arbitration.
Foley says some people who tried to register to vote in Brcko offered documents bearing addresses of completely destroyed and uninhabited villages. He says others who tried to register, later admitted to having just stepped off the bus from Belgrade and were unable to even describe the house they allegedly lived in.