40 000 REFUGEES HAVE RETURNED TO FEDERATION THIS YEAR

( Editorial: --> 9214 ) SARAJEVO, July 22 (Hina) - Forty thousand refugees from western countries have returned to the territory of the Croat-Muslim Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the first six months of this year, the federal Refugees and Social Policy Minister Rasim Kadic said in Sarajevo on Wednesday. That number could however be much higher, he emphasised. According to German Government data, 40,000 people returned to the Federation territory from Germany alone, he told reporters. Kadic said that 54 per cent of the refugees who arrived in the Federation did not live in this Bosnia's entity before the war. They are mainly Muslims exiled from the Bosnian Serb entity in eastern Bosnia. "Their arrival in the Federation makes the social situation increasingly dangerous and tense because federal authorities cannot provide for them", the Minister said. The majority of these returnees spent the war in the Berlin area in Germany. The area's authorities have lately been stimulating them even financially to decide to make a voluntary return to Bosnia. A lasting solution concerning the returnees' accommodation will not be found as long as they are not able to return to their homes in the Bosnian Serb entity, Kadic said. This entity should pass appropriate property laws by late August. The federal minister emphasised that both Bosnia's entities should jointly work on the return of minority ethnic groups. The Croat-Muslim Federation has made the first steps, he said, and mentioned the return of Serbs to Mostar in southern Bosnia. Sixty Serbs have already returned to the Mostar district Ortijes, Kadic said, and announced another 100 would return by week's end. According to data of the federal Ministry for Refugees, the international community continues to reduce humanitarian aid. In the first half of this year it amounted to only 13.2 million marks, mainly in construction material. "Kosovo has become an international community priority, while Bosnia is now secondary", Kadic said. He also warned that because of the Kosovo crisis the number of Kosovo refugees arriving on federal territory had increased. "We estimate there are currently some 5,000 Kosovo refugees in the Federation, accommodated mostly with relatives and friends", Kadic said. Most of these refugees are not registered, 450 requested and 145 were granted refugee status with all the rights this entails. Federal authorities have no other choice but to accept refugees from Kosovo to which they are obliged by international conventions, the minister said. (hina) ha jn 221548 MET jul 98