Officials at the Croatian consulate in Istanbul said the delay was caused by a mistake in a document necessary to transfer the body from the morgue in Mosul to Croatia.
"We are making all diplomatic efforts to have the mistake corrected and the body transferred as soon as possible," Miona Sevcik of the consulate in Istanbul told Hina. Sevcik and an undertaker from Osijek are waiting for Burazovic's body in the Iraqi town of Zahuo, 11 kilometres from the Turkish border.
Without elaborating on the nature of the mistake, Sevcik said that the Iraqi Health Ministry had faxed the document in question to the morgue, that is, the Forensics Institute in Mosul, northern Iraq, where Burazovic was killed in a terrorist attack on a truck convoy.
Sources at the Croatian Foreign Ministry explained that the problem occurred when the head of Mosul's Forensics Institute insisted on a special approval from a senior Health Ministry official in Baghdad, who tried to establish contact with Mosul several times but without success.
A state secretary at the Foreign Ministry, Gordan Bakota, phoned Iraqi Health Minister Alaa El-Din Alwan, who promised help.
US Ambassador to Croatia Ralph Frank has been informed about the latest developments regarding the case, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.