For years refugee officials have worked to achieve a common definition to bring evenhandedness to these affairs.

"The women are the main victims of the war," a refugee official said.

Lately, however, foreign refugee officials here reported, greater care is being exercised.

Theirs was one of two exceptional ordeals in January, refugee officials say.

But international refugee officials say its apparent success shows that with similar protection, refugees could return to many other parts of Bosnia.

The expulsion attempts are continuing, and refugee officials say they fear there is no way to stop them.

But this was complicated too, a refugee official said, because the countries would often promise to take some men, then be slow to actually accept them.

But refugee officials worry about this change of heart.

But those are places, refugee officials said, where local conditions favor compromise.

In the past, refugee officials have blamed Thai pirates for most of such attacks.