SARAJEVO, Oct 25 (Hina) - Institutions of the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe will actively lobby for more funds in the international community so that the process of return of refugees can be completed, given its critical
importance for the stability of the region.
SARAJEVO, Oct 25 (Hina) - Institutions of the Stability Pact for
Southeast Europe will actively lobby for more funds in the
international community so that the process of return of refugees
can be completed, given its critical importance for the stability
of the region. #L#
The chairman of a body for refugee returns and migration issues
within the Stability Pact, Soeren Jessen Petersen, said in Sarajevo
on Friday the Pact would advocate the allocation of additional
funds to support the continuation of refugee returns in south-east
Europe.
Wrapping up his visit to Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Petersen
said it was obvious that huge progress had been made in the recent
years in relation to the return of refugees and displaced persons.
The former UN official for refugee issues said that of the 2.5
million refugees registered in the region after the war about one
million were now waiting to return to their pre-war homes.
He described the latest figures regarding the so-called minority
returns as encouraging. For example, a growing number of Bosniaks
(Muslims) are returning to Bijeljina (the Serb entity), while Serbs
are returning to Ilijas (near Sarajevo) on a mass scale.
In the first eight months of 2002, over 70,000 minority returns were
registered in Bosnia.
Petersen said that additional efforts should be invested into
providing decent living conditions for returnees.
He added that the paradox of the achieved progress was that more and
more people were struggling for less and less available funds.
(hina) ms