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In the third report in her series on refugees in the post-Cold War era, NPR's Ann Cooper reports on the political limitations facing the United Nations refugee agency--the U-N High Commissioner for Refugees. In an emergency, the world's powers always turn first to the UNHCR. But in the messy conflicts of the post-Cold War world, the refugee agency often is unable to accomplish a central goal of its work--getting refugees to go home again. This is particularly true in the cases of Bosnia and Rwanda.

- The last wave of Rwandan refugees from that country's bloody civil war in 1994 is pouring back into Rwanda from neighboring Tansania. Jacki speaks with Tom Stromberg, spokesman for the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, who says that, unlike the chaotic return of Rwandan refugees from Zaire, the movement out of Tanzania is an orderly exodus.

Danny talks to NPR's Sylvia Poggioli, who's in Belgrade, about the latest refugee crisis resulting from the war in the former Yugoslavia. Tens of thousands of Serb refugees are on the run, fleeing from Krajina after the Croatian army invaded that area. Krajina had been held by rebel Serbs. Now most of the area is back in Croatian hands.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden in Jerusalem reports the fate of Palestinian refugees remains a key stumbling block in efforts to forge a final peace deal. Palestinians say the refugees have the right to return to homes in what is now Israel. Israelis of all political stripes say that can never happen.

Ivan Watson reports on the worsening conflict along Guinea's borders with Liberia and Sierra Leone. Hundreds of thousands of civilian refugees are caught in the crossfire.

NPR's Gerry Hadden reports on former refugees from Guatemala's 36-year civil war. Many returned to Guatemala from Mexico after a peace agreement in 1996, but conditions are still harsh.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports that today is the deadline Tanzania had given Rwandan refugees to leave their camps and go home. Nearly all of the half-million Rwandans in Tanzania have done so. But relief officials estimate there are still at least two or three hundred thousand Rwandans stuck in a remote area of eastern Zaire, without access to sufficient food or medicine. These refugees apparently include many who perpetrated the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports from Amman, Jordan that there seems to be little prospect that a Mideast peace accord -- even if one is reached -- would permit significant numbers of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. The issue is heightening tensions between native Jordanians and Palestinians, who make up an estimated 60 percent of the population.

- NPR's Sunni Khalid reports on a camp for Kurdish refugees that has been set up in Iran by that country's red cross. The Kurds fled over the border from Northern Iraq after Saddam Hussein's troops and members of one Kurdish faction...evicted another Kurdish faction out of several towns.

NPR's Michael Skoler reports on what awaits the nearly two million Rwandan refugees who choose to go home from camps in Zaire and other countries. While many have been told they will be killed or jailed in revenge for the genocide of 1994, most are able to go back and resume their lives. But many do have problems--there have been killings, and thousands have been thrown in overcrowded jails, sometimes on the flimsiest of evidence.