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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Working group for implementation of Sarajevo Declaration meets

Belgrade, 15 September 2005

The Serbian Commissioner for Refugees Dragisa Dabetic said yesterday in Zagreb that Serbia-Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia have a common interest in solving the problem of more than half a million of refugees in the region, which is crucial for prosperity and good relations in the region, as well as for the fulfilment of European standards.

Dabetic, who attended in Zagreb the second meeting of the trilateral working group for implementation of the Sarajevo Declaration on refugees, told the Tanjug news agency that progress has been made at the meeting, but that many more issues concerning refugees have remained opened.

The state delegations of Serbia-Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia agreed to clear up the text of the "Road map", which is the guideline for return of refugees, and that Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a coordinator, will prepare a draft of the joint groundwork for its implementation.

Dabetic said that all participants in the meeting agreed that much time has passed since the signing of the Sarajevo Declaration, on January 31 this year. He pointed out that the position of Serbia-Montenegro is that it is much more important to solve the crucial issues than to blindly follow dates and formalities and thus create an impression that some very serious issues have been solved, but are not, Dabetic said.

Another thing that was agreed is to establish exchange of data between the three countries with the help of UNHCR and to officially work with the number of displaced persons, and not only refugees.

The definition of refugees is limited to those who have formal refugee status, while the definition of displaced persons is expanded to include refugees and those who have had refugee status, but lost that status after obtaining citizenship, Dabetic explained.

The commissioner specified that there are 140,000 refugees in Serbia, but the number of displaced persons is 350,000. However, the number of displaced persons in Serbia who came from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia was even higher before, reaching half a million, but that number has reduced, first of all because some refugees have left to third countries and because some have returned to the countries they fled from.

Apart from Dabetic, the trilateral meeting was attended by Montenegrin Commissioner for Refugees Zeljko Sofranac, Serbia-Montenegrin Ambassador to Croatia Milan Simurdic, representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the European Commission, the OSCE and UNHCR.