ARE THE OGLE MICROLENSES IN THE GALACTIC BAR

The analysis of the first 2 years of data from the Optical Gravitation al Lensing Experiment (OGLE) project revealed nine microlensing events of the Galactic bulge stars, with the characteristic timescales in th e range 8.6 days < t(0) < 62 days, where t(0) = R(E)/V. The optical de pth to microlensing is larger than (3.3 +/- 1.2) x 10(-6), in excess o f current theoretical estimates, indicating a much higher efficiency f or microlensing by either bulge or disk lenses. We argue that the lens es are likely to be ordinary stars in the Galactic bar, which has its long axis elongated toward us. A relation between t, and the lens mass es remains unknown until a quantitative model of bar microlensing beco mes available. At this time we have no evidence that the OGLE events a re related to dark matter. The geometry of lens distribution can be de termined observationally when the microlensing rate is measured over a large range of Galactic longitudes, like -10 degrees < l < 10 degrees , and the relative proper motions of the Galactic bulge (bar) stars ar e measures with the Hubble Space Telescope.