$ SARAJEVO, March 10 (Hina) - Officials of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Sarajevo on Sunday said that the exodus of Serbs from Sarajevo suburbs could not be described exclusively as voluntary leaving.
'Many people have left Sarajevo suburbs on their own accord during the transitional period, but a large number of them have left due to pressures by extremist elements in their community', head of the Sarajevo UNHCR Office, Marc Cutts said.
ELEMENTS
$
SARAJEVO, March 10 (Hina) - Officials of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Sarajevo on Sunday said that
the exodus of Serbs from Sarajevo suburbs could not be described
exclusively as voluntary leaving. 'Many people have left Sarajevo
suburbs on their own accord during the transitional period, but a
large number of them have left due to pressures by extremist
elements in their community', head of the Sarajevo UNHCR Office,
Marc Cutts said. #L#
Many Serb experts and intellectuals who lived and worked in
Sarajevo suburbs told UNHCR officials they wanted to stay. However,
they were prevented by the systematic destruction and plunder of
factories, schools and hospitals. The destruction of factories had
prompted those people to star leaving because they realized they
would have nowhere to work and nothing to live of.
Great efforts had been put in prevention of new mass
relocation of people, but they yielded no results due to a
systematic campaign directed against the reintegration of Sarajevo.
Radical elements on the Serb side were responsible for that,
UNHCR officials said.
'The Serbs who want to stay are coming every day to our
office, asking what we can do to protect them', UNHCR spokesman
Kris Janowski said, adding UNHCR could not to anything to protect
them, but could keep informing IFOR and international police about
the fear which reigns among those people.
(hina) rm
101509 MET mar 96