HOMEWARD-BOUND BOSNIACS ON WAY TO JAJCE, UNHCR SAYS

SARAJEVO, Jan 19 (Hina) - A U.N. spokesman in Sarajevo said that processes started in Bosnian Federation which might lead to the ethnic reintegration of that part of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Spokesman for the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Kris Janowski, said 44 Bosniac (Moslem) families were allowed to return to the central town of Jajce, adding that the process was stepped up following the negotiations between the UNHCR and the local Bosnian Croat authorities. #L# Janowski said he expected more Bosniacs who had been expelled from Jajce during the war to return to their homes. The town, which had been taken by the Bosnian Serb forces in summer of 1992, was liberated in a joint Bosnian Croat (HVO) and Croatian army operation Mistral late last summer. UNHCR officials in Jajce reported local Croat people to welcome the homeward-bound Bosniacs in "a friendly mood", saying that overall situation in the part of Bosnia has "significantly improved." Janowski also recalled that around 250 Bosniacs had earlier returned to the western town of Glamoc, while a hundred Croat families had returned to Travnik. According to the UNHCR's information, around 1,500 Bosniacs and Croats currently lived in the Serb-controlled Sarajevo suburbs. They have so far not been directly endangered, but arson and looting were likely if the Serbs opt for a mass exodus, Janowski said. Only a small number of Serbs had definitely left the suburbs, and UNHCR supposed they were mostly persons who had arrived in the area during the war and now were back to their homes. Others were mostly transporting furniture and values to the Serb-held areas. Janowski stressed that UNHCR did not intend to help to the Serbs who would decide to leave. (Hina) jn bk 191623 MET jan 96