ONLY 11 000 BH REFUGEES RETURNED TO HOMES - UNHCR

( Editorial: --> 4761 ) SARAJEVO, June 30 (Hina) - Only 11,000 of 50,000 refugees have returned to their homes since the beginning of this year, Nicholas Morris, special envoy of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for the former Yugoslavia, said in Sarajevo Tuesday. Commenting on the results of last week's meeting of the U.N. working group for humanitarian issues in Geneva, Morris said that the meeting had agreed that the lack of political will was still the main obstacle to the return of refugees. Of 50,000 refugees, 35,000 are only temporarily accommodated in their pre-war homes and their return cannot be considered final, Morris said. This is a challenge not only for the international community but for the local authorities as well, the UNHCR envoy said. He described as positive a programme for the return of refugees adopted recently by the Croatian Government and expressed hope that it would be successfully implemented. (hina) as rml 301908 MET jun 98