Diplomat named for Brcko

VIENNA - The international community's High Representative for Bosnia, Mr Carl Bildt, said yesterday he had appointed Mr Bill…

VIENNA - The international community's High Representative for Bosnia, Mr Carl Bildt, said yesterday he had appointed Mr Bill Farrand, a senior US diplomat, as supervisor of the hotly-disputed Bosnian town of Brcko.

The volatile town, claimed by both Serbs and the Muslim-Croat federation, is the subject of an international conference being held in Vienna's historic Hofburg Palace.

Mr Farrand is a career State Department diplomat with on the ground experience in Eastern Europe. His job will be to strengthen democratic institutions and oversee implementation of the Dayton peace accord that ended Bosnia's 43-month war, but was almost scuppered by the Brcko issue.