British hostages flown home

FROM TONY BARBER

in Belgrade and

CHRISTOPHER BELLAMY

in Split

Four British soldiers from the Royal Welch Fusiliers released by the Bosnian Serbs arrived at the RAF base at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire last night. Sixteen other freed British soldiers arrived at Split airport after travelling from Belgrade via Zagreb.

But six Britons are among 145 United Nations peace-keepers still effectively held hostage by the Bosnian Serbs.

Of the four arriving at Brize Norton, Steven McCabe, 21, from Cardiff, Martin Williams, 19, from Holyhead, and Ioan Smith, 19, from Mold, Clwyd, were among 120 hostages released on Friday. The fourth, 25-year-old Ian Diamond, from Aberdare, was one of the 17 Britons released in the early hours of yesterday morning. He was greeted last night by his wife Christine, who married him just a week before his battalion went to Bosnia. All the soldiers had been injured but none seriously. Those landing at Split in a white, Russian-built Ilyushin-76 had been among 108 peace-keepers released early yesterday.

In an act of defiance after they reluctantly set free the 108, Bosnian Serb forces seized a tank and a heavy gun from UN control in the Bosnian capital and after two weeks of relative calm the Sarajevo valley once again rang to the crash of tank fire and the sharp bang of outgoing mortar bombs.

Much of the shooting in the past 10 days has been directed at the road over Mount Igman, threatening traffic on the only land route into the city. No aid convoys have entered Sarajevo for more than two weeks, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is concerned about shortages of food in the city.

A UN delegation plans to visit Pale, the Bosnian Serb "capital", today to demand access to Sarajevo for aid convoys. But the UNHCR did receive Serb clearance to send aid to the three eastern enclaves of Zepa, Srebrenica and Gorazde.

Questioned about the condition of the British soldiers, Ivor Roberts, the charge d'affaires at the British embassy in Belgrade, said their main complaint was that they had been given only bread and thin soup during their 11 days of captivity.

All that changed once they arrived at a modest holiday site in Novi Sad for a rest before being transferred to Zagreb. "They tucked into a breakfast of meat soup, roast lamb, veal, roast potatoes, the full works, and they destroyed that pretty comprehensively," Mr Roberts said.

He declined to say if the Bosnian Serbs had forced any British soldiers to act as human shields against Nato air strikes, but commented: "They are all in good spirits and in good heart."

Three more Unprofor officers - from Brazil, France and Spain - were released yesterday and President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia said the remaining peace-keepers would be freed "in the next few days". Meanwhile, defence officials from Britain, France and the Netherlandsmade a formal presentation of proposals for bolstering the Bosnia protection force to the UN secretariat in New York.

Balkan booby-trap, page 10