Serb minority refugees could choose places to return in Serbia's Kosovo province under a U.N. plan.
The plan stipulates legal frameworks to protect refugees from discrimination, said Sandra Michell, newly appointed director of the U.N. Office for Return in Kosovo's chief town of Pristina.
Michell said the plan is to create easier conditions for the return of displaced people, the Beta news agency reported. Lack of security and a poor economic situation are major problems that returnees face.
About 2,000 Serbs have returned to Kosovo in the past nine months. Some 200,000 Serbs left Kosovo following NATO air attacks in 1999 and ethnic Albanian attacks on Serbs in March 2004.
Kosovo, formally still part of Serbia, has been under the U.N. administration since 1999.
Serbs and ethnic Albanians in February began mediated talks on the future of Kosovo to decide who will govern the province once NATO and U.N. personnel leave.
© Copyright 2006 by United Press International
