WE WERE RIGHT THE PAST FIVE YEARS, SAYS GRUJIC IN COMMENT TO TASIC

ZAGREB, March 26 (Hina) - Statements by the director of Novi Sad's Forensics Institute, Milos Tasic, that the Institute performed autopsies on bodies dragged out of the Danube between 1991 and 1993 and that 55 bodies were buried at the Novi Sad cemetery, confirm exactly what we were saying five years ago when we asked for unidentified remains to be turned over to us, head of the Croatian government's Office for Missing and Detained Persons, Lieutenant- Colonel Ivan Grujic, told Hina Monday. "We were right when during negotiations with the Yugoslav side we insisted that they turn over the remains of people who were buried as unidentified," Grujic said. According to the data at hand, at least 300 unidentified remains were buried during the war in Novi Sad, Belgrade, Staicevo and Begejci, while much intelligence says that these people came from the Croatian Danubian region. The cooperation so far with Tasic was correct, Grujic said. It is only a matter of time when the Yugoslav side will turn over the remains and necessary documents. Until now the process was slow, but as it steppes up, so the Yugoslav side will receive information about people it is looking for, Grujic said. Director of the Novi Sad-based Forensics Institute confirmed to Belgrade's agency Beta Monday that the institute performed autopsies between 1991 and 1993 on corpses dragged out of the Danube River. Fifty five of the total 87 bodies that were found have been buried at the Novi Sad cemetery. According to Tasic, in 1991, 28 bodies were found floating in the Danube, in 1992, 40, and in 1993, 19 remains which were never identified, but he is positive that the river brought them down from near Croatia's eastern town of Vukovar and that they were civilians. (hina) lml