NINETEEN BOSNIAK REFUGEES LEAVE GASINCI REFUGEE CENTRE

( Editorial: --> 6693 ) GASINCI, 23 Jan (Hina) - A group of 19 Bosniak refugees left the refugee centre Gasinci in eastern Croatia on Friday in an organised return to the region of Velika Kladusa and Cazin in western Bosnia- Herzegovina. They have lived in the refugee centre since the conflict in that region of western Bosnia between the 5th Corps of the Bosnia- Herzegovina Army and a unit loyal to Fikret Abdic who during the war proclaimed an autonomous region in western Bosnia-Herzegovina. The coordinator of the Osijek Regional Office for Displaced Persons and Refugees, Snjezana Covic, said that although it was announced that 43 Bosniaks would be leaving the refugee centre today, only 19 left because the regional government in Bosnia was not able to find accommodation for all the returnees. This is the third convoy organised this year for Bosniaks to return to the Velika Kladusa and Cazin regions. In those three convoys 372 Bosniak refugees have returned. In Gasinci there remains 610 refugees, about 100 of them are from the Velika Kladusa and Cazin regions. (hina) mm mrb 231316 MET jan 98