BOSNIAN SERBS CONTINUE WITH ETHNIC CLEANSING

SARAJEVO, Sept 3 (Hina) - Nine months after the signing of the Dayton Agreement, Bosnian Serbs continued with the ethnic cleansing in areas they control, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski told a press conference in Sarajevo on Tuesday. UNHCR would evacuate 31 Bosniaks from Banja Luka to Croatia today, Janowski said, adding that two months ago they were expelled from their homes in the Banja Luka district of Vrbanja before the indifferent eyes of the Serb police. Representatives of the U.N. and the international police attempted several times to return those people to their homes, but were prevented by local Serb authorities, Janowski said. The chief of the Banja Luka police was requested to intervene and enable the return of the expelled Bosniaks, U.N. spokesman Aleksandar Ivanko said, but added that nothing had been done. Until now the expelled lived in a hotel and eventually requested of UNHCR to ensure their evacuation. Janowski stressed that this was not the only example of the continued ethnic cleansing after Dayton. 96 Bosniaks had been expelled from Teslic earlier on, and the last incident took place two days ago in Bijeljina (northeastern Bosnia), where a Bosniak woman reported to the international police that unknown persons had entered her house while she was in hospital. She did not even get her belongings, while authorities in Bijeljina were doing nothing to enable her return. Spokesman for the NATO-led Peace Implementation Force Max Marriner today confirmed that Bosniak houses in Brcko and Bosanski Brod (northeastern Bosnia, the so called "Serb corridor") had been bombed on Sunday and Monday. After an investigation, IFOR said that during the night between Sunday and Monday one house had been completely destroyed, while two Bosniak houses near Brcko, on which repairing had just begun, had also been damaged. A construction material storehouse had also been destroyed. Janowski claims that the highest authority officials in Pale were duly informed of the incidents, but did nothing to stop the ethnic cleansing. (hina) ha jn 031427 MET sep 96