(24 Mar 1996) English/Nat
Facing the threat of economic sanctions, the Bosnian government and their former Serb foes on Sunday tried to iron out differences over the release of their last prisoners of war.
The Bosnian government released 109 Serbs late Saturday but it fell short of a total release of prisoners, and the Serbs are accused of still holding a number of captives as well.
The Serbs have agreed to release them within eight days, but the Acting President of Bosnia, Ejup Ganic, said all prisoners still held by the Bosnian government were charged with war crimes and would not be released.
The thorny issue of releasing prisoners of war came a step closer to resolution Sunday with the Bosnian government freeing more than 100 Serb prisoners overnight.
But this was still not seen as a total compliance with the Dayton accord, as some prisoners remained in jail.
On a visit to Tuzla, the Acting President of Bosnia, Ejup Ganic defended his government's actions .
SOUNDBITE:
"Only those who are accused for war crimes are the responsibility of the Hague, so all those that we keep and have evidence that they are involved with war crimes will be given to the authorities at the Hague.
(Q :How many prisoners are involved ? )
A:"I don't know specifically. Around 20 are accused for war crimes. Everybody else was released.
SUPERCAPTION: Ejup Ganic, Acting Bosnian President
Officials of the Contact Group meeting in Moscow on Saturday had warned that unless all sides complied fully, they would face sanctions instead of getting the economic aid they so badly need to rebuild Bosnia.
Authorities set a new eight day deadline for the prisoners' release.
In an attempt to clarify the intentions of both sides, Amor Masovic, the head of the Bosnian government P-O-W commission, and his Bosnian Serb counterpart, Dragan Bulajic, met on a former front line south of Sarajevo.
The Bosnian Serbs agreed to free 12 people arrested before the Dayton peace agreement had been signed ,over the next eight days.
But the Bosnian government reiterated that all the prisoners it held were suspected war criminals currently undergoing investigation, so they would not be released.
This latest round of brinkmanship came about following the overnight release of the 109 prisoner being held by the Bosnian government.
All the prisoners were meant to have been freed by January the 19th under the terms of Dayton accord, but all sides have been involved in delaying tactics.
The prisoners were released from this jail in Tuzla and taken to a waiting convoy of buses and trucks.
Most of the group had been captured in the final weeks of Bosnia's war last autumn and it was one final 30 mile (46 kilometre ) trip to freedom.
They arrived at an I-FOR checkpoint on the Gracanica bridge and were marched in a column towards relatives who were waiting for them on the other side of the river in Serb territory.
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