SARAJEVO, April 19 (Hina) - Officials of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday demanded that Yugoslav and Serbian authorities unconditionally free 13 Muslims from Zepa, eastern Bosnia, who recently had
not been allowed to return to Bosnia-Herzegovina with a group of other Muslims. About 240 Muslims were imprisoned in the Sljivovica prison camp in Serbia after they had escaped from Zepa before a Bosnian Serbs army attack last year.
SARAJEVO, April 19 (Hina) - Officials of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday demanded that Yugoslav
and Serbian authorities unconditionally free 13 Muslims from Zepa,
eastern Bosnia, who recently had not been allowed to return to
Bosnia-Herzegovina with a group of other Muslims. About 240 Muslims
were imprisoned in the Sljivovica prison camp in Serbia after they
had escaped from Zepa before a Bosnian Serbs army attack last year.
#L#
"We expect that these people be returned to Bosnia-Herzegovina
by the end of this week, otherwise we will make a really big
problem out of it", said Randolph Ryan, spokesman for UNHCR in
Sarajevo, adding that there was no evidence for claims by Belgrade
authorities that the prisoners were responsible for war crimes.
The return of refugees to Bosnia-Herzegovina was being
obstructed by all three sides in equal measure, the UNHCR
representative said.
Ryan said that the UNHCR was against the spontaneous return of
refugees, because certain preconditions had to be met before the
return. He added that a group of 150 to 200 Serbs from Banja Luka
announced that they planned to return this Sunday to their homes in
Drvar, western Bosnia. There had been similar examples on the Croat
and Muslim sides as well, Ryan concluded.
(hina) ha mm
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