SEVEN BOSNIACS FROM SREBRENICA STILL KEPT IN SERB PRISON

SARAJEVO, May 29 (Hina) - UN Spokesman in Sarajevo Aleksandar Ivanko on Wednesday warned that it was difficult to expect the group of seven Bosniacs who were in a Serb prison in Bijeljina, north Bosnia, to get a fair trial. They had been charged for the murder of four persons. International Police representatives who visited the prison in Bijeljina on Tuesday were told by the apprehended Bosniacs that the local judge had threatened them to 'hold them in prison for 50 years until they confessed to the crime' and disclosed the names of their accomplices who the Serbs insisted that they were hiding in the nearby forest. #L# The Serbs showed to the international police representatives the Bosniacs' alleged confessions to the murders of four persons near Zvornik, eastern Bosnia, but it was established that the confessions had been extorted by physical abuse, so they had no legal value. The seven Bosniacs had surrendered to IFOR troops two weeks ago, who in turn, handed them over to the Serbs. All seven persons are listed on missing persons' lists after the fall of Srebrenica. Ivanko said that the international police would wait for the time-limit of 30 days to run out, which is the amount of time under the law of Republika Srpska, in which persons can be kept in prison without bringing suit against them. If proof for alleged crimes is not submitted by that time, the international police commissioner Peter Fitzgerald may ask from Carl Bildt to start a political campaign aimed at releasing the detainees. (hina) lm mm 291409 MET may 96