DALJ PLANINA, Sept 26 (Hina) - Exhumation teams with the Croatian government on Tuesday discovered the body of an older woman in a well in Dalj Planina, near the eastern town of Erdut. Veterans' Minister Ivica Pancic, who attended the
exhumation, said Croatia was gathering evidence for a genocide lawsuit, and regretted that so far, "a complete documentation on victims of the Serb aggression in Croatia has not been gathered." We know that Croatia was the victim of the Greater Serbia aggression and we cannot let "it turn out that what happened here was a civil war in which everyone was equal," Pancic said. "It is obvious that there were individual Croatian crimes. The international (war crimes) tribunal has to establish this objectively, but we have nothing to be ashamed or afraid of," he added. So far, 3,158 persons have been exhumed from 126 mass and individual graves in Croatia,
DALJ PLANINA, Sept 26 (Hina) - Exhumation teams with the Croatian
government on Tuesday discovered the body of an older woman in a
well in Dalj Planina, near the eastern town of Erdut.
Veterans' Minister Ivica Pancic, who attended the exhumation, said
Croatia was gathering evidence for a genocide lawsuit, and
regretted that so far, "a complete documentation on victims of the
Serb aggression in Croatia has not been gathered."
We know that Croatia was the victim of the Greater Serbia aggression
and we cannot let "it turn out that what happened here was a civil
war in which everyone was equal," Pancic said.
"It is obvious that there were individual Croatian crimes. The
international (war crimes) tribunal has to establish this
objectively, but we have nothing to be ashamed or afraid of," he
added.
So far, 3,158 persons have been exhumed from 126 mass and individual
graves in Croatia, and 700 have been identified. Another 1,558 are
registered as missing.
Seventy trial exhumations have been done in eastern Croatia and,
even though no victims have been found in the majority of the cases,
they will continue, said Ivan Grujic, the president of the
government's Commission for Missing and Detained Persons.
He explained the problem was that the victims' bodies had been taken
elsewhere, even to Yugoslavia. Several persons exhumed in Celije,
for instance, were identified as victims from Baranja. It is also
suspected that about 300 missing Croats are Yugoslavia.
Speaking about the person exhumed today, Grujic said she was an
elderly woman "who certainly didn't threaten anyone, or did
anything." Today's exhumation, as earlier ones in wells near Dalj
and Erdut, confirmed "the recognisable way of killing victims."
Minister Pancic said tracing missing persons and the exhumation and
identification of victims were the government's main task. For this
reason, the government last week decided to upgrade the Detained
and Missing Persons Commission into the Detained and Missing
Persons Bureau.
"It is sad that some pinched a lot of money, like (United States)
attorney Rifkin, who took a dozen million dollars, leaving behind
nothing but a 15-page file," said the veterans' minister. "It would
have been better if we had invested that money in the establishment
of an institute for the research of Serb crimes in Croatia."
Asked to comment on claims by veterans' associations and the
Croatian Returnees' Union that some listed as war criminals were
walking freely in Baranja, Pancic said it had been the former
government, led by the Croatian Democratic Union party, who passed
the amnesty law.
"War crimes are never barred from the statute of limitations. It is
necessary to gather evidence, because it is the only basis for
prosecution. Crimes must be punished and this is beyond question,"
he said.
"At this moment, Croatia needs sense and patience because the
situation is difficult both politically and economically," the
veterans' minister concluded.
(hina) ha/it jn