BOSNIA's former warring parties were preparing to release more prisoners yesterday after major powers threatened to withhold reconstruction aid if they reneged on obligations undertaken in the Dayton peace accord.
"We have a commitment from the Serb side to release all prisoners from noon today, except those who are considered war criminals," said Mr Colum Murphy, spokesman for Mr Carl Bildt, the international community's High Representative in Bosnia.
Mr Murphy added that Bosnian Croats had said they would release 10 of the 51 prisoners they were holding.
By nightfall yesterday the only prisoner who had been released was Ninko Djuric, a Serb journalist captured by the Bosnian army last year.
Mr Hidajet Delic, a Muslim photo journalist arrested in a Serb held suburb of Sarajevo on February 8th, had been expected to be released by the Serbs in a reciprocal move.
"The High Representative on Sunday called upon the Bosnian Serbs and Croats to immediately release the prisoners they hold face economic consequences, Mr Murphy said.
Under the terms of the Dayton peace agreement, which brought an end to 43 months of war in Bosnia, all prisoners of war were to have been released by January 19th.
Hundreds of people held by the three Bosnian factions have been freed but several hundred others were still in detention as recently as Friday, despite repeated commitments to release them.
The prime ministers from five major powers met in Moscow on Saturday and undertook to postpone an April Conference to raise funds for Bosnian reconstruction if the parties did not meet their obligations to release their prisoners.
The Bosnian government then released 109 prisoners from a Tuzla military jail on Saturday evening. It admitted it was holding another 26 prisoners whom it suspects of war crimes. The government said yesterday it had forwarded their dossiers to the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague.
The Dayton accord gives Bosnian parties the right to hold suspected war criminals for a reasonable period of time while the tribunal evaluates their cases.
Nato forces, also signalling growing international impatience with the Bosnian factions selective implementation of the Dayton accord, closed down four illegal checkpoints in the north of the country on Saturday. Two had been operated by Bosnian government troops and two by the Bosnian Serbs.