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Source: French Defense Ministry via Open Media Research Institute. (The OMRI Daily Digest is published by the Open Media Research Institute, a nonprofit, public service research organization funded by the Open Society Institute, independent grants, and contracts with broadcasting organizations.)

MLADIC ABUSED FRENCH PILOTS. The French Defense Ministry on 27 December admitted that Bosnian Serb forces had mistreated the two French airmen captured at the end of August and released on 12 December, news agencies reported. The ministry thus went back on previous official statements that the men had been well treated, but it denied charges in Le Canard Enchaine that the authorities had forced the pilots to lie about what had happened. They were kicked, beaten, isolated in ice-cold bunkers, and put through mock executions. Indicted war criminal General Ratko Mladic, the pilots said, "was the boss from beginning to end. He decided what our fate would be," threatening to torture and kill them. The Serbs kicked the men's injured legs and threw them only occasional food. The revelations again fueled speculation that the French made a deal to free them, involving plea-bargaining for Mladic at the Hague war crimes tribunal or better terms for the Sarajevo Serbian suburbs. -- Patrick Moore