245 Freed in Bosnian Prisoner Exchange : Balkans: Some of the Muslims and Serbs had been held up to two years. But Christmas goodwill is marred when a second release falls apart. Peace accord calls for all captives to be let go by Jan. 19.

On Christmas Eve, Bosnia moved raggedly toward peace as two of the warring factions exchanged 245 prisoners Sunday, but a second release of captives here was abruptly canceled.

In what officials said was one of the largest prisoner exchanges in the Balkan war, Bosnian Muslims freed 131 captives and Bosnian Serbs released 114 prisoners at a bridge near the town of Gracanica in northern Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Those freed included civilians and soldiers, some imprisoned for as long as two years. The civilians were men who had disappeared but survived this summer’s bitter siege of the city of Srebrenica, where thousands disappeared amid reports of atrocities.

But demonstrating the difficulty that NATO must confront as it attempts to build a peace in Bosnia, another prisoner release--which was to be supervised by British troops at this military checkpoint--collapsed, as both Bosnian Serbs and Croats reneged on promises to free dozens of captives.

For the British, who have made the greatest progress in establishing a North Atlantic Treaty Organization presence among Bosnia’s rival factions, the refusal of the Serbs and Croatians to fulfill their commitment was disappointing, especially on the eve of what for many Christians is so holy a day.

“I think it’s an enormous shame that goodwill could not be found when it came to it,” said Brig. Richard Dannatt, who was on hand to supervise the planned release at this checkpoint. “There was an opportunity for unilateral release today to show goodwill, and it hasn’t happened.”

Under the peace agreement reached last month in Dayton, Ohio, and which NATO forces are here to enforce, all prisoners must be released by Jan. 19. The Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims also must draw up lists by Jan. 4 identifying their captives.

Although the Croatians, many of whom are Roman Catholics, mark Christmas today the Serbs, who are predominantly Christian Orthodox, celebrate their holy day on Jan. 7. And while Christmas holds no religious significance for the Bosnian Muslims, many of them and their Christian and Christian Orthodox neighbors in prewar Bosnia once respected and participated in festivities for each others’ holidays.

On Sunday, near the town of Gracanica, the prisoners released by the Bosnian Muslims and Serbs walked across a bridge over the Spreca River carrying a few possessions in suitcases and plastic bags. They looked tired but reasonably healthy, according to reports from the scene.

“I am the happiest mother in the world,” Stojanka Vasic told Reuters news service as she held the hand of her 19-year-old son, who was freed by the Muslim-led Bosnian government. “I found him, and he is OK.”

One prisoner freed by the Muslim-led government was Nikola Zepinic, 70, who said he was arrested 15 months ago when he tried to visit his daughter in Tuzla and inadvertently encountered government soldiers in their trenches. “I am totally innocent for all my 70 years,” he said. “I didn’t harm anybody.”

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Some of the Serbian prisoners released by the Bosnian government were hesitant to discuss their imprisonment, saying they feared for the fates of friends still held. “How was I treated? Well, we were in prison. That’s enough,” Nehad Dostanic said. “Everyone had to labor. We had to dig a lot.”

As for the freed Bosnian Muslims, they too spoke with reserve--their joy at freedom tempered by ugly memories.

Though Bosnian Serb Col. Nedeljko Savic, who helped oversee the prisoner transfer, talked warmly of the event, saying, “This is the first big exchange of prisoners in the last two years,” Behudin Miminovic, 28, could not keep his hands from shaking, even after he was free.

Miminovic told the Associated Press that he twice had fled his Serbian captors, who besieged the U.N.-declared “safe area” of Srebrenica for months and raised international concern by clearing the area of thousands of Bosnian Muslim men. Many of them have not been accounted for, and U.S. officials have said spy-plane evidence suggests the presence of mass graves in the area.

Miminovic said he was taken prisoner for the last time five months ago in the Srebrenica area. During one of his escapes, he had to hide in a pile of 500 corpses. He also told of being forced to carry the bodies of women and children to a large hole for burial.

Such grim recollections--and a glitch over a Bosnian Muslim prisoner who was supposed to be in Bosnian Serb custody but who could not be turned over Sunday--caused anxious moments even at the exchange at Gracanica, 22 miles northwest of Tuzla.

But in the no-man’s-land of Black Dog Checkpoint, the mood turned much darker when the British-arranged prisoner release failed.

On one side of the checkpoint, a Bosnian Croat officer waited in vain for Bosnian Serbs to release his 3-year-old son, whom he has never seen. The boy, who lives with his grandmother in Serb-held territory, was born after the war started and while his father, a former police officer, was off with Bosnian Croat forces. The Serbs have repeatedly refused to let the child leave.

“I have been waiting three years to get my child back,” the downcast officer said. “Unfortunately, I have to spend my third Christmas without having my family together.”

Two years ago, he said, the Serbs let his wife and older son leave, but the baby was hospitalized with bronchitis and could not go. Six months ago, the child was supposed to be part of a prisoner exchange, but the Serbs sent only a picture of the boy. “I think they are doing this to me because I am a Croat officer on the Croat side,” his father said.

After meeting with the top British commander in the region Saturday, Bosnian Serb and Croat generals agreed to unilaterally release some prisoners early in a goodwill gesture. In theory, it was not an exchange but two independent prisoner releases at the same time and site.

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But the Serbs never showed. When the officer’s child did not appear Sunday, the Croatians refused to release Serbian prisoners they had brought with them.

Dannatt, in a roadside encounter, delivered a tongue-lashing to two Croatian officers--including the disappointed father. “I think it’s immoral that you have got prisoners in the vehicle behind me that you’re not willing to release,” the British brigadier told them. The war “is a tragedy that has run long enough, and it is time to end it.”

Still, the Bosnian Croat officers were unmoved. They drove off, taking their unhappy prisoners with them.