960406

Brussels conference likely to be on schedule-Bildt

KUALA LUMPUR: A conference on Bosnian recontruction is likely to be held as planned next weekend in Brussels, but Bosnian Serb representatives might be excluded, Carl Bildt, the international community's High Representative to Bosnia, said on Saturday.

"The indications are that the conference will go ahead," he told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur after calling on Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Bildt, who arrived on Saturday for a two-day visit before leaving for Japan, said he would assess the situation in Bosnia before making a final recommendation to the countries which were planning to attend the conference.

"As things stand now, it looks as if I would be able to give the green light for the conference, but not for the participation of the Bosnian Serbs," he said.

Organisers of the major donors' conference have threatened to cancel the meeting unless all the remaining Bosnian prisoners of war held by the three warring factions -- Moslems, Croats and Serbs -- were released.

According to the International Committee of Red Cross, 28 prisoners of war were held by the Bosnian Moslems, 44 by the Croats and 16 by the Serbs.

Bosnia's mainly Moslem central government freed 18 Serbs late on Friday while their partners, the Bosnian Croats, freed 28 POWs. But the Bosnian Serbs failed to respond with the hoped-for release of their detainees.

The release came after Western diplomats set a midnight deadline for prisoners to be freed or dossiers on their cases submitted to the U.N. War Crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Envoys said earlier that non-compliance would lead to exclusion from the Brussels conference, a punishment that could cost the Serbs many millions of dollars in reconstruction funding they might otherwise have received.

Asked if he thought the Serbs would release the prisoners within the next 24 hours, Bildt said: "I don't see it yet...there is a deadline to release the prisoners in Bosnia and if they don't, I think they are out of the picture for the time being."

The conference in Brussels would aim to raise $1.2 billion in pledges for Bosnia this year to add to $600 million obtained last year.-Reuter