UNHCR: ONE MILLION REFUGEES LIKELY TO RETURN TO BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Feb 11 (Hina) - According to some forecasts, one million refugees and displaced persons will have returned to Bosnia Herzegovina by the summer this year.#L# Bosnia's minister of human rights and refugees, Mirsad Kebo, and the head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) office in Sarajevo, Udo Janz, said at a news conference in the Bosnian capital on Wednesday that 985,003 refugees had returned to their homes by 31 December 2003, according to official statistics. According to current estimates, during the 1992-1995 war, about 2.2 million people fled the country, which was almost one half of its population at the time. If the forecasts about one million returnees come true, this would still be less than 50 percent of those who fled the country, however, the UNHCR official believes this would also be a great success. In that context, he spoke about the successful enforcement of property laws and the fact that 201,000 of 216,866 property repossession claims had been positively settled until now. What causes concern is the fact that the interest in the return has been falling recently. In 2002, there were 107,909 returnees, while only 54,315 people returned to Bosnia in 2003. Our job is still not done. A large number of people will need help from the international community and local authorities so that we can close this chapter of the tragic war period, Janz told the conference. Minister Kebo believes that another 350,000 people could be interested in returning to their pre-war homes. He said that at least 45,000 housing units should be rebuilt and about 400 million euros would be necessary for this purpose. So far, some 100 million euros have been secured each year for the return process. Kebo said that political obstacles in this process had been removed and now it was most important to create favourable financial and economic conditions, including the creation of more jobs. (Hina) ms