AREA OFFICIALS SAY COUNTY SHOULD EMBRACE REFUGEES.

Byline: Deborah Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer

While the U.S. government plans to house Kosovar refugees in Guam or Guantanamo, local politicians said they would consider welcoming some to Los Angeles County if needed.

They agreed, however, that the best option is returning the refugees safely to their homes.

``I'm sure that Los Angeles would do its fair share, along with the rest of the country,'' said county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. ``But I think that's way ahead of ourselves.''

Yaroslavsky held a press conference Monday supporting the NATO airstrikes, and calling for swift repatriation of the ethnic Albanian refugees driven from Kosovo by the Serbian military.

``The more they remain refugees the less likely they're going to return home,'' he said. ``But in the meantime we have (to give) the refugees a semblance of quality of life, so that they are not held as hostages to the political or military circumstances of Yugoslavia.''

City Councilman Mike Feuer said that while most Kosovar refugees wish to remain near, if not in, their homeland, ``For those who wish to relocate to the United States and to Los Angeles in particular, I would like to see the city of L.A. extend itself.''

``It is impossible to watch what's happening in Kosovo, and not be reminded of the Holocaust,'' he said. ``When the Holocaust occurred, the world sat by and watched. That should not be the case now.''

The federal government has announced plans to accept 20,000 refugees, but plans to shelter them temporarily in Guam or at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, not in the United States.

If the United States did consider settling Kosovar refugees within its borders, the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement would transport them to states willing to accept them, said Bobbie Kimble, refugee coordinator for Los Angeles County.

States that agree to welcome refugees would then funnel them through county social service programs, providing jobs, vocational English classes and welfare benefits if necessary, she said.

Kimble said her office settled about 1,800 new refugees last year, and added that it would be difficult to handle more than 1,000 above that.

However, she said, if there were a massive influx of Kosovar refugees to Los Angeles County, ``I think you would see the refugee community - and other communities - rise up to meet their needs.''

After the Persian Gulf War six years ago, Los Angeles County declined to accept Iraqis or other refugees without family ties to the area, arguing that the region, in the midst of a recession, could not absorb unattached refugees, nor provide economic opportunities to them.

Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said Monday that the county has no such policy regarding Kosovar refugees. The county has not been notified by the federal government that it would receive any of the ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, Antonovich said.

However, he said he believes the county should do its share, if asked. He said the county's chief administrative officer will be asked today what role the county could play in sheltering refugees.

City Councilman Nate Holden, chairman of the Intergovernmental Relations Committee, said the council might pass a resolution supporting the NATO actions and consider receiving some of the refugees.

Mayor Richard Riordan is deferring to the president and Congress to act in Kosovo, said Deputy Mayor Noelia Rodriguez, but remains concerned about the plight of Kosovar refugees and is willing to cooperate with any federal decisions on their settlement.

``In the meantime, the mayor believes that people should get involved with the humanitarian effort,'' she said. ``That's where local people's energy should be focused at this moment.''