Over a million Bosnians back home

[Henk Elegeert]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3675968.stm

"
  Over a million Bosnians back home
The United Nations says more than a million people displaced
by the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina in the early 1990s have now
returned home.

A spokesman for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), Peter
Kessler, described it as a "significant milestone".

Nearly 500,000 of the returnees went back to areas where
they were ethnically in a minority - especially Muslims, but
also Serbs and Croats.

Mr Kessler stressed that "enormous obstacles" still had to
be tackled.

The problems on the ground include restoring infrastructure,
education and healthcare, rebuilding homes and simply
finding jobs.

More than two million people fled their homes during the war.

"Nevertheless, this return movement over the last nine years
has been important because it demonstrates that when the
international community is prepared to put money into these
operations refugees can go back - and can go back in sure
and stable ways," Mr Kessler told the BBC's The World Today
programme.

Scattered exiles

The returnees included more than 560,000 displaced and
440,000 who came back from abroad, he said.

"We think there are another half a million people who may go
back, but on top of that indeed there are hundreds of
thousands more who have built new lives in countries where
they have integrated."

Nato deployed some 60,000 troops to Bosnia at the end of the
1992-95 war, but its troop presence has shrunk to just
7,000. It will hand over peacekeeping duties to an untested
European Union force at the end of the year.

Some observers warn that the country remains a "powder keg,"
with ethnic tensions still running high in many areas.

The UNHCR says nearly 75% of the returnees went back to the
mainly Muslim-Croat entity - the Federation of Bosnia and
Hercegovina, and 25% to Republika Srpska.

Some 20,000 have returned to Brcko District, which is
administered separately from the two entities enshrined in
the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/3675968.stm
"

**********
Dit bericht is verzonden via de informele D66 discussielijst (D66 at nic.surfnet.nl).
Aanmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SUBSCRIBE D66 uwvoornaam uwachternaam
Afmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SIGNOFF D66
Het on-line archief is te vinden op: http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/d66.html
**********