133 SERB REFUGEES RETURN TO CROATIA

( Editorial: --> 2097 ) BAJAKOVO, Aug 6 (Hina) - A group of 133 Croatian Serbs, who left their homes during the military and police operations "Flash" and "Storm" in 1995, returned to Croatia from Yugoslavia via the border crossing of Bajakovo on Thursday. The returnees were welcomed by Sonja Lovrecic, secretary general with the Government Office for Displaced Persons and Refugees and Nada Arbanas, head of the Osijek regional office. "The first group of returnees from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia returned to Croatia last week as part of the Croatian Government return programme and it is expected that the dynamics of the return process will intensify," Lovrecic said. All refugees who entered Croatia today are on a list with the names of 5,600 persons who have expressed a wish to return and whose names have been submitted to the Government Office for Displaced Persons and Refugees by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Lovrecic said. "So far, the Government Office has approved the return of 1,023 persons while another 289 Serb refugees have already returned in various ways within the return programme," Lovrecic said. Last week, the UNHCR submitted a new list with the names of 4,200 Serbs who want to return, so that the list of those wishing to return from Yugoslavia now contains the names of 9,800 persons, she added. Most of the returnees who arrived in Croatia today will return to the areas of Vojnic, Korenica and Donji Lapac. The returnees are all elderly people and none of them have Croatian documents which they will obtain in their places of return. Some of them will return to their houses while those who cannot move into their houses will be accommodated with their hosts. According to Lovrecic, in the past three years 42,660 Croatian Serbs returned to their homes from the Danube River region, Bosnia- Herzegovina and Yugoslavia. The group which arrived today was accompanied by the Serbian Government Commissioner for Refugees, Bratislava Morina, who described their return as a proof of normalisation of the Croatian- Yugoslav relations. So far, about 10,000 Croatian Serbs accommodated in Yugoslavia have requested to return to their homes, said Eduard Arboled, head of the UNHCR Mission to Yugoslavia. According to data from the Yugoslav Commission for Refugees, there are about 250,000 and 300,000 Croatian Serb refugees on the Yugoslav territory, Arboled said. Most of the returnees who arrived today were reserved saying only they returned "to spend their old age in their own homes and hope that everything will be all right". The return of Serb refugees is organised by the UNHCR and the Government Office for Displaced Persons and Refugees in line with the return programme. (hina) rml 061436 MET aug 98