From CNN Interactive:

                  Missing Australian aid worker
                  confesses on Serb TV

                  April 11, 1999
                  Web posted at: 2:28 PM EDT (1828 GMT)

                  BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (Reuters) -- One of two
Australian aid
                  workers who disappeared around 10 days ago in Serbia
was
                  shown on state television on Sunday confessing to
intelligence
                  activities and apologizing for harming Yugoslavia.

                  Steve Pratt, head of CARE Australia's operation in
Yugoslavia,
                  went missing with a colleague, Peter Wallace, on his
way out of
                  Serbia on March 31. Wallace was neither seen nor
mentioned in
                  the broadcast.

                  Serb television news showed Pratt in profile slumped
at a high
                  table with a caption describing him as "Major Steve
Pratt." He bore
                  no obvious signs of physical mistreatment and spoke
calmly and
                  clearly, beginning by stating his name, citizenship
and listing the
                  countries he had previously worked in.

                  "When I came to Yugoslavia I performed some
intelligence tasks in
                  this country by using the cover of CARE Australia. My
                  concentration was on Kosovo and some effects of the
bombing,"
                  he said in clearly audible English.

                  "I misused my Yugoslavian citizen staff in the
acquisition of
                  information. I realize that damage was done to this
country by these
                  actions for which I am greatly sorry. I also did and I
still do condemn
                  the bombing of this country."

                  With these closing words and no elaboration the news
bulletin
                  moved on to another story.

                  Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said
earlier on
                  Sunday that Yugoslav officials were holding back
information about
                  the two, who were last heard from at a checkpoint on
the
                  Yugoslav-Croatian border.

                  He said the authorities had not confirmed they were
holding them
                  but that informally the Australian government was
aware they were
                  being detained and were in reasonable health.

                  CARE Australia urged the Yugoslavs to release the two
men as a
                  humanitarian gesture for the Orthodox Easter festival
being
                  celebrated on Sunday.

                  Serb television is a crucial arm of President Slobodan
Milosevic's
                  propaganda machine. NATO and its leaders are
frequently
                  compared to Nazis and no opinions or pictures which
could cast
                  the Yugoslav regime in a bad light are ever shown.

                  Three U.S. soldiers, who disappeared around the
Macedonian
                  border on March 31, appeared a day later on Serb
television
                  bearing marks of violent struggle on their faces.

                  Several television appearances by moderate Kosovo
Albanian
                  leader Ibrahim Rugova, in which he appeared to call
for an end to
                  NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia, remain shrouded in
mystery.

                  NATO has said that some of the footage may have been
two years
                  old and that Rugova's words could have been distorted.