Serbs free last six British troops

EMMA DALY

Sarajevo

Twenty-six UN peace-keepers held hostage by Bosnian Serbs since Nato air strikes on 25 and 26 May regained their freedom yesterday afternoon when they were taken across the border to Serbia on a double-decker bus.

The party included all six Britons still in Bosnian Serb hands. However, in a sign that tension in the region is worsening, UN officials said thousands of Bosnian army troops were massing north of Sarajevo, part of an even larger force apparently preparing to try to lift the 38-month Serb siege of the city.

"We can confirm government troop strength in the range of 20,000 to 30,000 men in the Visoko-Breza region," said one official. "There's never been a massing of troops like this in the Bosnian war. They clearly intend to strike towards Sarajevo. It seems the Bosnian Serbs are mobilising to check any possible offensive. Things could get very difficult very quickly."

Government forces are only 20 km (12 miles) from the city in the Visoko- Breza area to the north-west and could advance along a main road to Sarajevo if they broke through Serb lines.

Along with the freed Britons were 14 Frenchmen, two Poles, a Swede, a Russian and a Czech, according to Serbia's head of state security, Jovica Stanisic, who supervised the operation. The identity of the 26th hostage was not given.

Mr Stanisic said that a further 104 UN troops had been "unblocked" in the Sarajevo region and had rejoined their units, bringing to 130 the total of UN personnel and military observers freed yesterday. Mr Stanisic said the remaining 14 UN hostages were "blocked" for "technical reasons". Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader, said they would be freed "before the end of the week."

"I'm overjoyed, all the boys are," one Royal Welch Fusilier in Sarajevo said. "But of course we can't really say 'thank God it's over', because it's not. They're still holding other hostages."

Mr Stanisic hailed the "big success" of his boss, President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, adding that the release was a "clever move" by Mr Karadzic.

He said that Bosnian Serbs want "peace as soon as possible".The Bosnian Serb "foreign minister", Aleksa Buha, said that the Bosnian Serbs had received assurances there will be no more Nato air strikes in exchange for the releases, a statement denied by the UN. However the UN Force Commander, General Bernard Janvier, did hold a secret meeting 10 days ago with the Bosnian Serb commander, General Ratko Mladic.

Nato row, page 10