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Foreign Minister Sets Midnight Deadline
(BONN, March 31—Reuters) German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said on Sunday that German and possibly European aid for post-war reconstruction would be withheld if the last prisoners of war in ex-Yugoslavia were not freed by midnight. Kinkel was reiterating the position of the five major power sponsors of Dayton—the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Russia—which in Moscow last weekend called on the former warring parties to honor the peace accord.

He said that Serbs, Croats and Bosnians were still holding a total of 96 prisoners in violation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which requires all remaining POWs to be released by January 19. He said they had until midnight to act. "Without the release of all prisoners of war the donor conference planned for April 12-13 in Brussels will not take place," said Kinkel, adding: "At any rate there will be no German participation."

Hundreds of POWs have already been freed but many others were not. Some detainees were held on suspicion of war crimes, which the accord permits for a reasonable period of time. Others were held in clear violation of the agreement. After the Contact Group threatened to withdraw aid last weekend, the Bosnian government released 109 POWs and Croatian authorities released 10. All three sides say they are holding war crime suspects and suspect the others of holding many more unregistered prisoners than they admit.

"A genuine desire for peace must be made clear, if not, then the international community will have no choice but to limit its readiness to help,'' Kinkel said in a statement. "A lot of money has been made available for civilian reconstruction since the beginning of the year. But the donation of further funds can not be taken for granted.''


International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

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