GENEVA, May 13 (Hina) - The aid to Bosnia-Herzegovina should be aimed at the development of local economy, the reconstruction of the destroyed infrastructure and homes in order to ensure a better and faster return of refugees, UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Sadako Ogata, told a session of a working group for humanitarian issues held in Geneva on Monday.
GENEVA, May 13 (Hina) - The aid to Bosnia-Herzegovina should be
aimed at the development of local economy, the reconstruction of
the destroyed infrastructure and homes in order to ensure a better
and faster return of refugees, UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), Sadako Ogata, told a session of a working group for
humanitarian issues held in Geneva on Monday. #L#
Ogata said that after the signing of a peace agreement on
Bosnia-Herzegovina in December 1995, about 70,000 refugees and
displaced persons had returned to their homes, but only to those
areas where they were in ethnic majority.
The return of refugees and displaced persons to the formerly
occupied areas was continual and the number of returnees was
increasing, said Deputy Head of the Croatian Government's Office
for Refugees and Displaced Persons, Damir Zoric.
Zoric appealed to UNHCR and other international organizations
to provide a more effective support to the returnees, not by
sending humanitarian aid, but by supporting programmes for the
development.
A pilot-programme for the return of refugees and displaced
persons to the Croatian Danubian area should start in mid July,
Zoric concluded.
(hina) ha jn
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