COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONFERENCE ON REFUGEES HELD IN BELGRADE

BELGRADE, June 5 (Hina) - The treatment of refugees in Yugoslavia "has improved significantly since the establishment of the new authorities," however, Yugoslavia needs to continue cooperating with the Council of Europe in that respect, said participants in a day-long Council of Europe conference on refugees, held in Belgrade on Tuesday. Lord Jaad, chairman of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly's sub-committee for refugees, called on Yugoslav authorities to include international and non-governmental organisations in the solution of the refugee problem. UN's High Commissioner for Refugees in Yugoslavia, Erkie Hienonnen, said that funds intended for refugees were being reduced and that the annual budget for refugees had been cut from 50 to some 30 million dollars. He added a solution to the problem of the integration of refugees should be sought in economic and social progress. Serbia's Minister for Refugees, Sanda Raskovic Ivic, said international officials now accept the fact that most refugees want to stay in Yugoslavia unlike before, when they insisted that all refugees had to return to their mother countries. The minister said delays in the return of Serbs refugees to Kosovo could result in a new "Croatia syndrome". Explaining the term, she said that after 10 years of exile, only four percent of Croatian Serbs refugees wanted to return to their homes. (hina) sb rml