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Bosnia-Herzegovina: release of prisoners, ICRC plan of action not yet signed by one of the three former warring parties

09-01-1996 News Release 96/2

Geneva (ICRC) - Within the framework of the Joint Military Commission (JMC) meeting held at Sarajevo airport on 8 January 1996, the International Committee of the   Red Cross (ICRC) submitted to the former warring parties a plan of operation for the release and transfer, as provided for in Annex 1-A, article 9, of the Peace agreement, of prisoners currently detained in connection with the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

According to this plan,

- The ICRC will have unimpeded access to all places of detention and to all prisoners for the purpose of determining, through private interviews with them, the onward destination of each prisoners;

- The release of some 900 prisoners will take place on 15 and 16 January 1996;

- The prisoners concerned are all those already notified by the parties to the ICRC on 4 January 1996 and all those subsequently added by the ICRC.

During a five-hour meeting, the plan was accepted by the representatives both of the HVO (Hrvatskog Vijeca Obrane) and of the VRS (Vojske Republike Srpske). The representative of the ABIH (Armije Republike Bosne i Hercegovine) put forward conditions to be fulfilled prior to his signature.

The ICRC will do its  utmost in order to ensure, within the agreed time frame, that all the parties release all the prisoners as provided for by the relevant provisions of the Peace Agreement signed  by the parties in Paris, France, on 14 December 1995.