15 Inmates Released After Yugoslav Riots

Authorities freed 14 Serbs and one ethnic Albanian prisoner Friday, signaling that new President Vojislav Kostunica’s government was willing to meet some prisoner demands after six days of riots in major detention centers.

In exchange, the prisoners--who began their violent revolt Sunday--agreed to hand in their bats and clubs and allow guards back inside later Friday.

The move was the first sign of a return to order in the prison in Pozarevac, about 40 miles southeast of Belgrade, which joined Serbia’s two other main detention centers in six days of often violent riots that left one person dead.

The riots began Sunday in the northern city of Sremska Mitrovica and spread to the facilities in the southern city of Nis and in Pozarevac, with convicts protesting living conditions inside the prisons.