http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=222883&section=Kosovo

UNHCR Urges Caution in Resettling Kosovo Refugees

STOCKHOLM, Nov 22, 2000 -- (Reuters) Ethnic Albanians who fled Kosovo
seeking asylum in Europe should be returned slowly so as not to strain the
country's capacity to absorb them, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday.

For ethnic Serbs who had fled the province, however, the situation was still too
dangerous, visiting High Commissioner Sadako Ogata told a news conference,
adding that Kosovo had the least stable refugee situation in the Balkans.

"The protection needs of the Albanians are minimal, and for those who came to
European countries we will not oppose their return on protection grounds," Ogata
said.

"However, Kosovo is recovering from an emergency situation and the absorptive
capacity is still very limited. We would like to see it not pushed to the brink,
so
they should be returned step by step and gradually," she said.

Ogata, who is retiring at the end of the year after 10 years as refugee high
commissioner, referred to an estimated 200,000 Serbs and other minorities who
fled Kosovo after Yugoslav forces withdrew in June last year.

United Nations authorities took over in Kosovo in mid-1999 after NATO
bombing forced Yugoslav security forces to halt a purge of separatist majority
ethnic Albanians, and withdraw.

"There followed an outflow of Serbs and Roma minorities, and we didn't want
one group of persecuted people to be replaced by another," Ogata said.

"In principle we want the minorities to return, but we should exercise enormous
caution," said Ogata, who will be succeeded as UNHCR by Dutch former Prime
Minister Ruud Lubbers.

Sweden is one of several European Union (EU) countries where Kosovo
Albanians were granted temporary asylum from the purges, but many refugees are
now reluctant to go back.

Only 30 people recently turned up for a flight which Sweden had arranged to take
140 of the several thousand Albanians back to Kosovo.

Ogata paid tribute to Sweden's commitment to the funding and political support
of
the UN refugee agency ahead of the six-month Swedish presidency of the EU
council of ministers.

"We have a lot of expectations with Sweden taking over at this juncture. Europe
is where the tradition of humanitarian protection and support started," Ogata
said.

Maj-Inger Klingvall, Swedish minister for Migration Affairs, said the government
was prepared to raise its present annual contribution to the UNHCR of SEK 370
million (USD 36 million), and hoped that other countries would follow suit.