Church aides held in Sarajevo

THE HEAD OF THE Catholic Church in Bosnia was prevented from leaving Sarajevo this week and two of the Croat members of his group are still being held by Bosnian Serbs.
Mgr Vinko Puljic, Catholic Archbishop of Bosnia, and a Croat, attempted to leave Sarajevo on a peace mission to the city of Vares where he hoped to ease tensions between the Croats and the Muslim-led Bosnian army.
The group, which consisted of six Croats and their UN escort, was stopped at a Serbian checkpoint outside Sarajevo. A UN spokesman said that about 50 Serbian soldiers surrounded the vehicles and abducted two of the Bosnian-Croats, saying they were war criminals. The two men were taken to a police station while the rest of the group was turned back.
The UN spokesman said that UN mediator Thorvald Stoltenberg, currently in Zagreb, "takes this case very seriously and is pursuing it with the Serb authorities".
Observers said that the incident, which took place on the same day as a massive evacuation of Serbian women, children and elderly from Sarajevo, highlighted the lack of respect for UN troops in the region.