11 Prisoners Freed in Bosnia
Ten Serbs and a Muslim photographer were released Monday as Bosnia’s rival factions opened some of their prisons and jails.
Croats freed the Serbian prisoners in the southwestern town of Mostar, while the Serbs released photographer Hidajet Delic in Pale, outside Sarajevo. Delic is an employee of the Bosnian government’s BH Press and does freelance work for Associated Press.
The Serbs captured him in early February and accused him of ordering the killing of a Serb, a charge he denies. During his captivity, Delic was held in four places, including a freight container in Pale, the Bosnian Serb headquarters.
“The conditions were not really good, and they were not taking good care of their guests,” he said Monday at the daily briefing given by the NATO-led peacekeeping force. Delic said he was verbally abused but not “physically harassed.”
The former warring parties pledged two weeks ago to release all prisoners of war but failed to meet a self-imposed deadline of midnight Saturday.
World powers warned Saturday that unless all POWs were freed by next Sunday, desperately needed economic aid will be withheld.
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