UNHCR EXPECTS 200,000 REFUGEES TO RETURN TO BOSNIA THIS YEAR

MOSTAR, March 26 (Hina) - According to UNHCR estimates, 200,000 refugees will return to Bosnia-Herzegovina this year - 160,000 to the Moslem-Croat Federation and 40,000 to the Bosnian Serb entity, the head of the UNHCR regional office in Mostar, Niel Wreight, said on Wednesday. At a meeting of the inter-entity working group for the repatriation of refugees to southern Bosnia-Herzegovina, Wreight spoke of plans and difficulties in the return process and presented a draft document on repatriation in 1997, drawn up by the UNHCR. Wreight said that a permanent solution should be found for about 835,000 Bosnian refugees. It is expected that refugees will mainly return to areas where their ethnic group is predominant. The biggest wave of returnees is expected between April and September, when weather conditions are the most favourable for housing reconstruction. Wreight said that half a million houses and flats had been destroyed during nearly four years of war and that 51,000 houses should be repaired this year. He stressed that the UNHCR would support the return of 30,000 refugees to their original towns where their ethnic community is not in a majority. Of the Bosnian refugees staying in Croatia, 55 percent are from the territory of the Moslem-Croat Federation, while of those in Yugoslavia, 20 per cent are from the Bosnian Serb Republic, Wreight said. An information centre for repatriation, sponsored by the UNHCR and the International Centre for Migrations, will open in Sarajevo later this week. (hina) vm 261952 MET mar 97