Jolie urges more help for Bosnia refugees: UNHCR
AFP
SARAJEVO- Hollywood star Angelina Jolie called on Bosnian leaders to speed up the return of thousands of refugees from the brutal 1990s civil war as she made a surprise visit to Sarajevo on Saturday.
"I hope that there’ll soon be practical steps to improve these people’s lives," Jolie was quoted as saying in a statement released by the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.
She hailed the adoption by the Bosnian parliament in June of a new strategy for returning all internally displaced people in the country by 2014, the UNHCR said.
"The political leaders have shown a spirit of compromise in getting this far. Now it needs a little more urgency," added Jolie.
Jolie also met the Muslim and Croat representatives of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Haris Silajdzic and Zeljko Komsic, to discuss the refugee issue, Silajdzic's cabinet said in a statement.
The 1992-1995 war left 100,000 people dead and 2.2 million refugees and displaced persons in Bosnia. Some 113,000 people are still displaced or unable to return to their homes, according to the UNHCR.
Jolie, who arrived in Sarajevo on a private jet from Budapest on Friday, was later due to meet Bosnian film producers about a possible film on the Bosnian war which she would direct and star in, national radio said.
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