RETURN OF CROATS & SERBS TO SARAJEVO IN QUESTION

( Editorial: --> 2242 ) SARAJEVO, June 18 (Hina) - The plan on the return of at least 20,000 Croats and Serbs to the Sarajevo Canton by the end of this year will not be realised. The President of the Sarajevo Canton Government Mustafa Mujezinovic said on Thursday that "it is not realistic to expect the Sarajevo Declaration to be implemented by the end of this year". The Sarajevo Declaration was adopted at the beginning of February at a special conference on refugee return, organised by the Office of the High Representative in charge of implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. Speaking at a conference on implementation of the Sarajevo Declaration, Mujezinovic said that the return of 20,000 Croats and Serbs to the Bosnian capital could be possible only over a longer period of time. Mujezinovic explained this with a lack of flats and money needed for their construction. A similar statement was given at today's press conference of the Muslim Democratic Action Party (SDA) in Sarajevo by the President of the Croat-Muslim Federation, Ejup Ganic. There can be no return without necessary international help, Ganic said. Commenting for Hina on the implementation of the Sarajevo Declaration, Deputy High Representative Peggy Hicks said there was no doubt that the process was facing numerous obstacles. Those obstacles are particularly visible when it comes to applying laws enabling the return of flats to their owners who left during the war, she said. International representatives are supervising the procedure applied by municipal bodies in solving such cases and reacting to every individual complaint. We don't have the impression that there is an organised campaign of preventing the return but there is an evident lack of effort to move things forward, Hicks said. (hina) jn rml 181938 MET jun 98