SERBS AGAIN PLAY TRICKS AT POWS SWAP, BOSNIAN CROAT OFFICIAL SAYS

SAYS $ MOSTAR, Jan 28 (Hina) - The Herzeg-Bosnian prison exchange commission head, Berislav Pusic, Sunday described the conduct of Bosnian Serbs who failed again to free any Croat at yesterday's POWs exchange at the Sarajevo Airport as "yet another trick by the Serb side." He added that such behaviour caused stalemate. Speaking to reporters in Mostar after he returned from Sarajevo where he had participated in the POW swap, Pusic said "the Croatian side will ask the IFOR (NATO-led Implementation Force) to use force to make Serbs release the detained Croats." #L# Bosnian Serbs have said they will free 150 Moslems and 30 Croats in the coming days, according to Pusic. Bosnian Croats have set free 166 Bosnian Serb war prisoners since the Dayton accords were signed, and, thus, they have fulfilled their obligation under the agreement. Pusic told the reporters that there were still 72 Croats, captured in 1992, in the prison in Nis, Serbia. "I travelled twice to Belgrade and asked to visit the detainees (in Nis), but my request was refused," he said adding that the Croatian side, with help of the international institutions, would pressure Serbian authorities to release the Croats from the Nis prison. Pusic also told reporters about an incident that had taken place at the Sarajevo Airport during the prison swap. Pusic asked a Bosnian Croat (HVO) policeman to leave a bus in which released Serbs had been taken from Mostar, in order that the POWs exchange could be carried out. When the policeman was leaving the bus "French soldiers started to beat him up and pushed him back into the bus, claiming that it (the airport) was a zone under their responsibility." "Because of the incident we will protest to IFOR commanders, Admiral Leighton Smith and ground troops' commander General Michael Walker," Pusic said. (hina) mms 281642 MET jan 96