OSIJEK, Nov 3 (Hina) - The Osijek Medical Faculty on Friday announced the results of the identification of seven Croatian soldiers and civilians, exhumed from a mass grave in Celije and a grave in Antunovac in eastern Croatia in
February 1998 and April 1997.
OSIJEK, Nov 3 (Hina) - The Osijek Medical Faculty on Friday
announced the results of the identification of seven Croatian
soldiers and civilians, exhumed from a mass grave in Celije and a
grave in Antunovac in eastern Croatia in February 1998 and April
1997. #L#
Using the method of DNA analysis and forensic inspection, forensic
experts identified Drazen Stimec, Vladimir and Pavo Zemljak, Zoran
Andjal, Zeljko Filipcic and Darko Kusic, who had been abducted from
Baranja in 1991 and taken to prison in Dalj, where they had
disappeared without trace. Another victim, Stevo Morzan, was
exhumed in Antunovac.
The experts discovered shot wounds and multiple bone fractures
indicating violent deaths. The group from Celije, where 14 victims
were exhumed, includes prisoners of war, one of them being Darko
Kusic, a captured Croatian police officer who was to be swapped,
said the head of the Government Commission for Imprisoned and
Missing Persons, Ivan Grujic. He added that ICTY observers had
shown interest in the Celije case.
Paramilitary units, led by Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan, who, among
others, had been in charge of the Dalj prison and the Celije area,
are suspected of this crime.
Arkan, a war criminal and long-time confidant of the Serbian
regime, was killed in Belgrade in spring this year.
Croatia is still searching for 1,576 persons. So far, 3,167 victims
of the Greater Serbian aggression have been exhumed, of whom 2,530
have been identified.
(hina) jn rml