POLICE AND STATE PROSECUTOR INVESTIGATE WAR CRIMES IN PAULIN DVOR

ZAGREB, August 2 (Hina) - The police and state prosecution and other relevant bodies co-ordinated by the Chief State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic have for some time intensively been investigating the facts surrounding the circumstances of war crimes committed in Paulin Dvor near Osijek in December 1991, the Interior Ministry's spokeswoman Zinka Bardic confirmed for Hina on Friday. #L# According to an article in the "Feral Tribune" weekly, the bodies of 18 Serb nationals killed on the night between December 11 and 12, 1991 in Paulin Dvor near Osijek (east Croatia) were found in a mass grave site near Gospic (central Croatia). The bodies were exhumed last year. Documents found in their possession indicate that they were residents of Paulin Dvor. A final decision of whether the bodies were from Paulin Dvor truly taken to the mass grave site in Rizvanusa near Gospic, as claimed by the Split weekly will be made following an identification process to be conducted in the Forensic Institute in Zagreb. In its article entitled "Human re-settlement of bodies" the "Feral" weekly claims that by transferring the bodies, the Croatian army attempted to cover up war crimes committed by individuals in Paulin Dvor, a village that was occasionally under Serb occupation until the peaceful reintegration in 1997 and occasionally controlled by the Croatian army. An investigation of the facts and circumstances relating to the war crimes of 18 Serb civilians' murder - ten men and eight women - in Paulin Dvor will need to prove not only who committed the crime but also how the bodies found their way to a grave site 500 kilometres from the scene of the crime, the "Feral Tribune" concludes. (hina) sp ms