VIROVITICA: WAR VETERANS PROTEST AGAINST VETERANS BEING BROUGHT IN FOR QUESTIONING

VIROVITICA, Sept 15 (Hina) - Around a hundred people stopped traffic in the eastern town of Virovitica Saturday, protesting against Croatian war veterans being brought in for questioning about war crimes committed in the town in 1991. Over the past three days, the town police questioned 11 Croatian war veterans, to gather information on the disappearance of Bogdan Mudrinic, a Virovitica resident arrested by the military police on December 11, 1991 and taken to a military prison in the town's barracks. Mudrinic was allegedly released eight days later, but he never returned to his family and is held missing. Some 100 members of Virovitica county Croatian war veterans' associations gathered downtown at noon and proceeded to an arterial road stopping traffic for about half an hour. After the protest, they dispersed peacefully. The president of the county war veterans' coordinating body, Josip Nemec, said the conduct of the police was unlawful because the veterans were brought in for questioning without the knowledge of their families. They were held for more than 24 hours and were denied right to legal counsel, he said. Should the police continue with such conduct, the county war veterans association will organise more radical rallies, he said. (hina) rml