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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

NEWS SERVICE 60/94

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TO: PRESS OFFICERSAI INDEX: NWS 11/60/94

FROM: IS PRESS OFFICEDISTR: SC/PO

DATE: 28 MARCH 1994 NO OF WORDS:430

NEWS SERVICE ITEMS: EXTERNAL - Bosnia-Herzegovina

NEWS INITIATIVES - INTERNAL

INTERNATIONAL NEWS RELEASES

Hong Kong - 21 April - SEE NEWS SERVICE 36/94

Trade Unionists - 29 April - News release and focus article.

Saudi Arabia - 10 May - Report and news release on the treatment of Iraqi refugees in Saudi Arabia

Burundi - 16 May - SEE NEWS SERVICES 53/94 and 36/94

TARGETED AND LIMITED NEWS RELEASES

China - 29 March - SEE NEWS SERVICE 54/94

Turkey - 30 March - SEE NEWS SERVICES 46/94 AND 26/94

Switzerland CAT - 19 April - SEE NEWS SERVICE 53/94

Israel & OT CAT - 25 April - SEE NEWS SERVICE 53/94

FORTHCOMING NEWS INITIATIVES

Annual Report - 7 July - SEE NEWS SERVICE 51/94

News Service 60/94

AI INDEX: EUR 63/WU 01/1994

28 March 1994

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL DELEGATE VISITS CROATIA

An Amnesty International delegate is visiting Croatia from tomorrow to investigate the latest reports of human rights abuses in the Bosnian Serb-controlled areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Despite a welcome reduction in human rights abuses in the Bosnian Government-controlled and Bosnian Croat-controlled areas, Amnesty International is concerned by an apparent increase in human rights abuses in towns in the Serbian-controlled areas, particularly Banja Luka.

The human rights organization is receiving an increasing number of reports from these areas of killings, robbery, rape, harassment and forcible eviction -- both directly by Bosnian Serb soldiers or by civilians with the apparent complicity of the de facto authorities. Amnesty International is also concerned that Serbs may be being imprisoned for refusing to fight with the army in these areas.

The organization's delegate hopes to gather more detailed information about these human rights abuses and will be speaking with refugees in Croatia who are either victims or eye-witnesses of the recent abuses.

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Amnesty International is also concerned by recent reports of Serbs being imprisoned in Sarajevo for desertion or avoiding army call-up.

The organization is urging President Alija Izetbegović to inquire into reports that two Serbs, Marko and Velibor Lalović, were arrested in Sarajevo in January and charged with evading military service as a result of refusing to carry arms on conscientious grounds.

Although the Lalovićs were reportedly released last week, they have been ordered to report to the army again today and may again refuse to carry arms on conscientious grounds. Amnesty International fears they will again be imprisoned.

Amnesty International has also urged President Izetbegović to clarify the legal basis of charges against a group of five doctors and three nurses who were reportedly detained by Bosnian Government forces in Sarajevo in January. They are reportedly to be tried for "avoiding military service" on 4 April.

ENDS/