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Conference in Oslo to Deal With Bosnian Refugee Issues

Friday Meeting to Discuss Fate of 2.5 Million
OSLO, March 5 (Reuters)—The United Nations refugee agency will open a conference in Oslo on Friday to discuss the return or resettlement of about 2.5 million displaced Bosnians in former Yugoslavia and abroad. Around 80 representatives of governments and organisations have been invited to the talks being orgnised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which under the Dayton peace accord will manage the handling of the refugees.

"By hosting this conference, Norway sends a message that it wants a dignified and coordinated European return (of refugees)," Norway's junior minister for foreign affairs, Jan Egeland, told a news conference on Tuesday.

"We don't want this to go too quickly or in a way that creates new problems in the areas or for those returning. Some other countries are, in our opinion, proceeding too quickly," he added, but he declined to single out any.

Germany decided last month to start sending back its 320,000 Bosnian refugees from July, ignoring a plea from the UNHCR that it was premature to set a date for their repatriation. "I don't want to criticise any other country, especially not those who have accepted many more refugees than Norway," Egeland said. About 12,000 Bosnian refugees are in Norway, many of whom are expected to return home voluntarily this year.

"Most refugees want to return," he said. "That is their highest goal." The Oslo meeting, which will be chaired by Deputy High Commissioner Sergio de Mello, will discuss the repatriation programme for Bosnia launched by UNHCR in Geneva in January.

The UNHCR has detailed plans for the repatriation or resettlement of an estimated 2.5 million Bosnians displaced by war since 1992, but has conceded that many victims of the conflict would never be able to reclaim their pre-war homes. The UNHCR will initially concentrate on a million people displaced within Bosnia itself, followed by about 670,000 in neighbouring ex-Yugoslav republics. Finally, It will organise the repatriation of around 700,000 Bosnians elsewhere in Europe.

An estimated 40,000 have already returned home or resettled, with or without UNHCR help, and the agency reckons that around 830,000 Bosnians, most of them internally displaced, will return home or find new housing this year.

Additional resources

  • United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
  • International Red Cross
  • The United Nations Children's Fund

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