TWO PERSONS APPREHENDED IN PAULIN DVOR CASE

OSIJEK, Sept 14 (Hina) - Two persons suspected of participating in war crimes against 19 civilians in Paulin Dvor (near Osijek) in December 1991, have been taken to the Osijek County Court investigating centre on Saturday afternoon. #L# The Croatian Interior Ministry issued a statement saying that after establishing founded suspicion in the crime, a 43-year-old person in the military and a 33-year-old civilian from Osijek's wider area were taken to the investigating centre. The two are suspected of having committed the war crime along with an unknown number of persons, in the evening hours of December 11, 1991, as members of the 130 reserve brigade of the Croatian Army, at the time, not on duty. Police are continuing the investigation to uncover the remaining participants in the crime and the circumstances in which it was committed, as well as to establish facts connected to the removal of the bodies from Osijek-Baranja County. Ethnic Serb civilians were killed in the night between 11 and 12 December 1991 in Paulin Dvor, a village which had from time to time been occupied by Serb rebels and from time to time controlled by Croatian forces until the peaceful reintegration of eastern Slavonia. Eighteen corpses were found in a grave at Rizvanusa near Gospic in 1997, while one corpse was found in Paulin Dvor. "Osijek-Baranja police officials are carrying out a thorough investigation with the cooperation of the Military Police and the Interior Ministry Crime Police Administration, the chief and county state prosecution's offices, and with the assistance of other competent bodies. The public will be informed about all further results of the investigation," Interior Ministry spokeswoman Zinka Bardic said. The two persons arrested today were ordered 48-hour detention each, by which time the competent prosecutor's office should submit a request for investigation. (hina) lml