VUKOVAR/ILOK, Sept 20 (Hina) - Croatia's First Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic on Wednesday visited a recently discovered mass grave near Borovo, eastern Croatia. The mass grave in a 30-metre-deep well was found by investigators of
the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) some ten days ago. The well is in the middle of a corn field. Two bodies were exhumed from it on Wednesday morning. The head of the Croatian Government's commission for missing and detained persons, Ivan Grujic, who accompanied Granic, told reporters this was the 126th mass grave found in the former Serb-occupied areas of Croatia. To date, almost 3,200 victims have been exhumed and 1,500 persons are still missing. Present at the commencement of the exhumation near Borovo was an ICTY investigator, Vladimir Dzuro, who has been probing into war crimes in the Croatian Danube River area since 1995. Dzuro
VUKOVAR/ILOK, Sept 20 (Hina) - Croatia's First Deputy Prime
Minister Goran Granic on Wednesday visited a recently discovered
mass grave near Borovo, eastern Croatia.
The mass grave in a 30-metre-deep well was found by investigators of
the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
some ten days ago. The well is in the middle of a corn field. Two
bodies were exhumed from it on Wednesday morning.
The head of the Croatian Government's commission for missing and
detained persons, Ivan Grujic, who accompanied Granic, told
reporters this was the 126th mass grave found in the former Serb-
occupied areas of Croatia. To date, almost 3,200 victims have been
exhumed and 1,500 persons are still missing.
Present at the commencement of the exhumation near Borovo was an
ICTY investigator, Vladimir Dzuro, who has been probing into war
crimes in the Croatian Danube River area since 1995. Dzuro told
reporters that this site near Borovo had been found thanks to the
testimony of a witness. He added that ICTY investigators were
taking intensive efforts to complete documentation about crimes
committed at the mass grave of Ovcara (outside Vukovar), Skabrnja
and Dubrovnik.
By the end of this year an indictment should be issued for the
shelling of Dubrovnik, and an investigation into crimes in Skabrnja
(the Zadar hinterland) has just been launched, Dzuro said.
The ICTY representative added that the investigation into the
Ovcara case had made great headway and charges had been pressed
against several persons accused of war crimes in Vukovar.
Asked by journalists when the apprehension of 'the Vukovar
butchers' - Veselin Sljivancanin, Mile Mrksic and Miroslav Radic -
could be expected, Croatia's First Deputy PM Granic said the pre-
condition for their arrests was the change in power in Yugoslavia as
well as how much the new authorities would be willing to cooperate
in this matter, if Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was
toppled.
Commenting on Tuesday's statement given by Jacques Klein, the UN
mission's head in Bosnia, who said that Ivan Andabak, recently
arrested in Croatia on suspicion of organised crime, was the prime
suspect in the 1999 assassination of Jozo Leutar, Deputy Interior
Minister of the Bosnian Croat-Moslem Federation, Granic said the
Zagreb Government had been given the information.
Granic also expressed expectations that Sarajevo would forward to
Croatia documents on the matter, and added there was no possibility
for Croatia to extradite Andabak (who is a Croatian citizen), but he
could be tried in Croatia if Bosnia produced the necessary
documents.
After Borovo, Granic departed for the Vukovar suburb of Sotin where
residents have been staging peaceful rallies for over a year
insisting that truth be established about some 30 members of their
families who went missing in the Homeland War.
This senior Croatian official also held talks with authorities of
Vukovar-Sirmium County and local councils today.
(hina) ms