GOVT ADOPTS REPORT ON WORK OF OFFICE FOR MISSING, DETAINED

ZAGREB, Feb 14 (Hina) - The Croatian government's Office for Missing and Detained Persons last year shed light on the fate of 166 persons and is now tracing 1,401 persons. The remains of 102 victims were exhumed and the remains of 140 soldiers were identified last year, reads a Report on the Work of the Government Office for Missing and Detained Persons adopted today by the government. The government adopted a conclusion binding the Foreign Ministry to step up talks with Yugoslav representatives on locating mass graves. First Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic said that the exhumation of all persons, regardless of their nationality, was the government's obligation. He suggested the establishment of a single register of Homeland War victims regardless of the victims' ethnic background. Granic informed government members about a decision of the Hague war crimes tribunal to entrust all exhumation activities to the Office for Missing and Detained Persons and stop sending its exhumation experts to Croatia, except in their capacity as observers. The head of the Office, Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Grujic, said talks with Yugoslav representatives had resulted in Yugoslavia's admission that the remains of unidentified persons, suspected to be the missing from the Office's list, had been buried on Yugoslav territory. Granic said the issue of missing persons was the most difficult question in relations with Yugoslavia, more important than the issue of the southernmost Croatian peninsula of Prevlaka. Information on the location of mass graves and their speedy excavation is the main priority in our relations, Granic said. (hina) sb rml