RETURN OF REFUGEES TO SARAJEVO STILL UNCERTAIN

( Editorial: --> 2259 ) SARAJEVO, Feb 16 (Hina) - The Office of the International High Representative for the implementation of the Dayton Agreement, Carlos Westendorp, has not received any information indicating that relevant bodies of power in the Bosnian federation would fulfil on time their first task set at the Conference on the return of refugees which took place in Sarajevo, Westendorp's spokesman, Simon Haselock, said on Monday. At the conference held at the beginning of this month, the Bosnian Federation government had received an obligation to by 17 February forward to the Parliament drafts of relevant laws which would enable the return of pre-war owners of tenants' rights to their flats which had been abandoned during the war. This, however, still has not been done, and Haselock said there were no indications that it would be done. He declined to comment on the measures which Westendorp's Office could undertake in that case. The set deadline had to expire first, he said. The participants of the conference on the return of refugees to Sarajevo concluded that at least 20,000 of Sarajevo's pre-war residents of non-Bosniac nationality had to return to the city. They also stressed that the pre-war law on tenants' relations had to be adopted urgently, and that the consequences of the war regulation on abandoned flats had to be removed. The regulation which was adopted by the Presidency of Bosnia- Herzegovina stipulated that persons who had left their flats during the war had lost their tenant's rights permanently. (hina) lm mm 161508 MET feb 98