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BELGRADE, Aug 13 (AFP) - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) "cannot support" the return of displaced Serbs and Gypsies to their homes in Kosovo because the proper conditions do not exist in the province, UNHCR envoy Dennis McNamara said on Friday.
"The conditions for return do not exist right now and the UNHCR cannot support the return of displaced people to Kosovo," McNamara, the special representative of UNHCR chief Sadako Ogata for the region, told a press conference in Belgrade.
McNamara said the UNHCR would support the return of an estimated 180,000 Kosovo Serbs, but also Gypsies and other non-Albanians, "once the situation for the people is safe and they volunteer to go back."
These conditions include physical protection and all aspects related to law and order, which could be provided by an international police force, McNamara said.
On Wednesday, the UN refugee agency's spokesman in Pristina, Ron Redmond, said Albanian "thugs" have been systematically terrorising, attacking and murdering Serb civilians in the province.
McNamara said the UN refugee agency was "increasingly concerned about the attacks against the Serb population in Kosovo and in some parts of the province about attacks against the Romas," or Gypsies.
"We are very bothered because it has led to a new exodus of the population from Kosovo," he said.
McNamara said there were over 500,000 refugees from Croatia and Bosnia already in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro).
"If we add to that number the 180,000 displaced people from Kosovo, we have here the largest displaced/refugee population in the region now," McNamara said.
"This is a major humanitarian challenge, especially with the approaching winter," he added.
In order to cope with the newest influx of Serb displaced people from Kosovo, the UNHCR has just increased its 1999 budget for assistance to Yugoslavia by 20 million dollars to a total of 60 million dollars, McNamara said.
The UNHCR special envoy met in Belgrade with the Yugoslav Minister for Refugees Bratislava Morina, who outlined the specific needs for assistance to the displaced people.
McNamara said Morina confirmed that the rights of all displaced people from Kosovo will be respected, including rights to child education, health service and pensions.