UNHCR ASKS FOR SPEEDIER RETURN OF REFUGEES TO SARAJEVO

( Editorial: --> 5587 ) SARAJEVO, Dec 3 (Hina) - Spokesman for the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kris Janowski, said on Wednesday that the Sarajevo Canton authorities had assumed new commitments which should enable members of ethnic minorities to begin returning to the canton. Janowski told a news conference in Sarajevo that the mainly Muslim canton authorities had agreed to the prompt return of 100 Serbs who had left Sarajevo in the beginning of 1996. The UNHCR hoped that this was just the beginning of a more massive return of Serbs and Croats to Sarajevo, and that this was just the first step towards the establishment of a multiethnic character of Sarajevo, Janowski said. He, however, warned that much had to be done on that plan, primarily the adoption of amendments to the law on abandoned flats and private property, which would enable the return of pre-war tenants. The Sarajevo canton authorities had agreed to allow 25 pre-war flat owners to return to their flats which had been reconstructed through UNHCR funds, Janowski said. After reconstruction, these flats were given to other persons, but the UNHCR threatened to stop any financial support to future projects of reconstruction if they were not returned to people with tenancy rights. Janowski warned that many people whose houses around Sarajevo had been reconstructed were continuing to live in flats they had been temporarily accommodated in, and were using their homes as holiday houses. In this way they are obstructing the return of refugees in whose flats they live. We estimate that this problem relates to one thousand housing units, Janowski said. (hina) lm jn 031807 MET dec 97