Talks fail to free Spanish troops
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Your support makes all the difference.MOSTAR - About 60 Spanish soldiers of the United Nations peace-keeping force remained hostages of Mostar's Muslim residents yesterday, while UN civilian officials held talks with Croatian forces besieging the city. Cedric Thornberry, the official who led an aid convoy into Mostar four days ago, was trying to broker a ceasefire between Croatian and Muslim-led forces fighting for the city.
Muslim civilians blocked the convoy's exit after it reached here last Thursday with the first substantial aid supplies to the Muslim quarter since early June, when the Bosnian Croatian army (HVO) began blocking UN relief vehicles.
The Muslims, who fear renewed attacks by the HVO once the UN leaves, allowed the civilian half of the convoy to leave on Saturday. Mr Thornberry hopes a ceasefire will give them the confidence to release the soldiers.
Croatian and Muslim officers met Mr Thornberry on Saturday evening in Medjugorje, 15km (9 miles) south of Mostar. But a UN official in Zagreb said the Muslims failed to turn up for a second round of talks yesterday. The official gave no explanation for their absence.
Mostar's Muslim quarter remained under heavy fire from Croats, despite the presence of the Spanish troops.
The soldiers, who had expected to be in Mostar for a few hours, were spending most of their time lounging on their armoured personnel carriers. Their leader, Colonel Angel Morales, said: 'We are here as hostages. People are treating us as hostages. They are giving us food and water because when we came in the soldiers, who usually have three days of rations, gave them all away to the people.'
Mr Thornberry said the talks on Saturday were the first between the HVO and Bosnian government soldiers in the region for two or three months. 'They had a great deal to say to each other and they were saying it in a fairly forthright and also affable manner,' he said.
He added that the UN would probably have to provide a permanent peace-keeping presence in the city before the embattled civilians would allow the Spanish soldiers and their vehicles to leave and he expected 'a longish haul of negotiation'.
On Saturday, he said he had discussed the idea of making Mostar a 'safe area' with Thorvald Stoltenberg, the UN's peace negotiator for Bosnia. But UN sources say the Spanish government, whose troops patrol the region around the city, is reluctant to keep peace-keepers in Mostar since six Spanish soldiers were killed during heavy Croatian-Muslim fighting there earlier this year.
(Photograph omitted)
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