Milosevic presses Bosnian Serbs to release hostages

Bosnian Serb forces were poised last night to release some or all of the 250 United Nations peace-keepers in their custody after Serbia's President, Slobodan Milosevic, made it clear he wanted the soldiers set free. The Serbian leader sent his powerful state security chief, Jovica Stanisic, to the Bosnian Serb "capital" of Pale with orders to secure the freedom of the peace-keepers as soon as possible.

According to one unconfirmed report from Pale last night, the hostages, including 23 British servicemen, were being gathered from their hiding places for release early today.

Mr Stanisic was the man whom Mr Milosevic used to supervise the operation in which the Bosnian Serbs released 120 UN troops last weekend. The precise terms on which the latest batch of peace-keepers may be set free were not made clear, but it seems certain they were more to do with Serbian pressure on the Bosnian Serbs than with any Nato commitment to meet the Bosnian Serb demand for no more air strikes.

The release of the hostages would be unlikely to halt the Western preparations for a strengthened UN military presence in Bosnia. The creation of a rapid- reaction force, announced last weekend in Paris, is designed partly to ensure that no more episodes of hostage-taking or other illustrations of UN impotence will take place.

Witnesses in Pale said last night that several large vehicles had accompanied Mr Stanisic on his entry into the town, a possible sign that they were ready to load hostages on board and escort them to freedom. The detainees are thought to have been scattered across different parts of Bosnia last week to prevent the UN or Nato launching a commando rescue operation.

There was no word on how many hostages might be freed or whether any Britons would be among them. The Britons were captured in the eastern Muslim enclave of Gorazde 10 days ago and their whereabouts have been unknown since then.

Mr Milosevic is keen to take the credit for the release of the hostages because he wants the West to soften its terms for removing UN economic sanctions.

These include crippling measures such as denying Serbia access to international financial markets. If he ensures that all the peace-keepers are freed, he will have underlined his importance as the most powerful regional player in the Bosnian crisis and would expect concessions in return.

The hostages crisis has, at the same time, exposed the frailties of the UN operation in Bosnia. A UN spokesman, Alexander Ivanko, said before Mr Milosevic's intervention that the UN had failed to make any contact with the Bosnian Serb leadership yesterday either over the hostages or over the fate of an American pilot shot down by the Bosnian Serbs last Friday.

A mediating role in the hostages drama was played by Greece, a traditional friend of the Serbs, which sent its foreign and defence ministers to Pale early yesterday to negotiate the men's release. But it was clear that the key figures were Mr Milosevic and his state security chief, who appear to have demonstrated once again that when they want something done in Bosnia they can make it happen.

Srebrenica panic, page 9