ZAGREB, Aug 30 (Hina) - Several Croatian non-governmental organisations marking International Missing Persons Day on Saturday sent an open letter to the government, pointing out that Croatia was still looking for 1,262 missing
soldiers and civilians but that over the past year light had been shed on the fates of only 86.
ZAGREB, Aug 30 (Hina) - Several Croatian non-governmental
organisations marking International Missing Persons Day on
Saturday sent an open letter to the government, pointing out that
Croatia was still looking for 1,262 missing soldiers and civilians
but that over the past year light had been shed on the fates of only
86. #L#
That is a tragic and devastating fact, said the letter read out by
Zdenka Farkas, president of the Apel centre, which is the co-author
of the letter together with the Alliance of Croatian Homeland War
Veterans' Widows and Independent Volunteers of Croatia.
These organisations take exception to the fact that the law on war
veterans' rights does not recognise murdered veterans as a
category, only killed veterans, which they say are two different
legal terms and constitutes a "distortion of historical facts and
the covering up of Serbian crimes".
According to the letter, the leading figures of the Homeland War are
accused and turned over to the Hague war crimes tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia, while true crimes like the murders and
executions of Croatian soldiers and civilians are swept under the
rug.
The NGOs maintain a monument should be erected with the names of all
people killed, murdered and gone missing in the 1990s war. They lit
candles and prayed for their dearest by the Wall of Pain in Zagreb.
The second International Missing Persons Day was also marked in the
easternmost town of Vukovar, where wreaths were laid at the
Memorial Victims Cemetery and at the mass grave in nearby Ovcara.
(hina) ha