Serbs Fail To Release Prisoners

Hundreds of prisoners of war were freed across Bosnia on Saturday, but in a fresh obstacle to peace, the former foes reneged on promises to release everyone captured in 42 months of war.

The prisoner releases, key to the success of the U.S.-brokered peace accord, are already a week behind schedule. The accord stipulated that 900 prisoners registered with the international Red Cross were to be freed unconditionally by Jan. 19.

But only about a third were released on time. Hopes that the rest would be freed Saturday were high following upbeat remarks from all sides that they were serious about making the peace accord work.

The Red Cross said Croats and Muslims released about 250 prisoners, but kept some back.

The Bosnian Serbs released none, despite earlier promises to do so made under pressure from the international community, particularly Washington, and Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia’s powerful president.

“They did not comply,” Red Cross official Pierre Gauthier said of the Serbs. “I hope that it will happen tomorrow or in the next few days.”

Bosnian Serb official Dragan Bulajic offered no explanation for why the Serbs did not fulfill the pledge. Instead, he offered another promise.

“Tomorrow we will release everybody from Serb prisons,” he told reporters crowding Sarajevo airport, where 127 Serb prisoners held by the Bosnian Croats in southwestern Mostar were released.

The prisoners left shortly before nightfall for Serb-held Lukavica, a Sarajevo suburb, on buses and a NATO truck.

Most refused to talk to reporters. But Stanislav Blagojevic, 22, joked about the fatigues he was wearing.

“If I won’t need them for war, I’ll use them for hunting,” he said, adding he was not maltreated in the prison at Rodoc, near Mostar, where the Serbs were held.

A group of 38 Serbs - among 47 released from a government jail in the central city of Zenica - walked to freedom after being transported to Serb-held northern Bosnia. The other nine chose to remain in Zenica.