4,000 FAMILIES TO RETURN TO THREE BOSNIAN CITIES BY MID-MARCH

SARAJEVO, March 2 (Hina) - NATO chief commander in Europe, General Wesley Clark, said in Sarajevo on Tuesday he expected a significant progress in the return of refugees in Bosnia-Herzegovina this month. During today's visit to the Bosnian capital, Gen. Clark told a news conference that he expected the progress in the return of people to areas where their ethnic groups are in a minority adding that all three members of the Bosnian presidency had previously agreed on the conduct of the return of 4,000 refugee families to their homes. According to that agreement concluded in the mid-February, 2,000 Serb and Croatian families should return to Sarajevo, while one thousand Bosniak (Moslem) families should come home each in Banja Luka and Mostar by the middle of March. This year, the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia and its chief commander General Meigs have been very engaged in elaboration of such plans in order to help the High Representative and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to initiate the process of return, Clark said in response to a question why he was so sure that more refugees could come home this year. The international High Representative to Bosnia, Carlos Westendorp, said the repatriation of these four thousand families would be just the beginning of the process of the "minority" return. He said such return had been given priority, and added that Bosnian Presidency members were expected to help remove legal obstacles in the process. This return is one of the most important conditions for holding a donors' conference this May for the international assistance to Bosnia. If the families did not return, I could not persuade donors that such a conference may be necessary, the Spanish diplomat told reporters. (hina) ms