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Swiss Order Repatriation of Bosnian Refugees
(BERNE, April 3—Reuters) Switzerland decided on Wednesday to repatriate some 21,000 war refugees to Bosnia under a phased plan starting this year and due to be completed by the end of August 1997. The Federal Council, or cabinet, said the program would start with orders for about 8,000 Bosnians to leave the country by the end of August this year. A council statement said those being told to leave first were single people or couples without children and would be followed next year by about 13,000 refugees with children.

A smaller number of Bosnians who have won recognition as political refugees and those who can prove hardship will be allowed to stay, as will deserters from the Balkan war until the Bosnian government decides on an amnesty. "The Federal Council based its decision on the assumption that the peace process in Bosnia-Herzegovina will continue to develop positively," the statements aid. The situation would be reviewed in June.

Switzerland was among some 70 countries sheltering refugees from Bosnia who agreed at an Oslo conference to encourage voluntary repatriation but not to rule out forced returns. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates there are about one million people displaced within Bosnia itself, 670,000 in neighboring ex-Yugoslav republics and around 700,000 elsewhere in Europe.


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