CRO DEFENCE MINISTRY ON BURNING OF 156TH BRIGADE'S WAR DOCUMENTS

ZAGREB, Jan 11 (Hina) - Criminal investigators of the Croatian military police and the police in Makarska and Split-Dalmacija County, have undertaken operative measures to establish the facts and circumstances related to the discovery of burned documents belonging to the 156th Croatian Army Brigade, the Defence Ministry's public relations service reported Friday. The investigators have concluded there is founded suspicion that competent persons at the Makarska war-time defence headquarters and in the 631st Croatian Army reserve brigade at Imotski did not act in line with the law and the rule-book on archive and registry material while transferring and filing the war documentation of the 156th Brigade. The Defence Ministry said it had forwarded a report on undertaken measures and established facts to the State Prosecutor's Office in Makarska and the Military Prosecutor's Office in Split. The military criminal police have continued investigating the case. The Defence Ministry launched an investigation in mid-November last year to establish whether competent persons had acted in line with the law when handling the documentation of the 156th Brigade, which was found partially burned in Gornja Podgora. The national coordinating body of Homeland War associations has condemned "the destruction of the war documentation of the 156th Makarska-Vrgora Brigade", considering it "a shameful act towards the Homeland War." (hina) np sb