EXPERTS WORKING ON CRO LAWSUIT AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA VISIT E. SLAVONIA

ZAGREB, Nov 3 (Hina) - An expert group preparing the explanation of Croatia's genocide lawsuit against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on Thursday visited eastern Slavonia in order to gain an insight into the severity of crimes committed there, the Government's Public Relations Office said in a statement today. "The expert group was not gathering new evidence in eastern Slavonia; the purpose of its working visit was to obtain a better insight into the dimensions and severity of crimes, interview eye- witnesses at the sites where crimes had been committed and visit mass grave sites," the statement said. The group, which is preparing the explanation which should accompany Croatia's lawsuit against FR Yugoslavia before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for violating the regulations of the Convention on Genocide, was set up by the Office for the Cooperation with the ICJ and the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The group, established in June this year, includes domestic and foreign experts, mostly from the field of international law, penal law and history. So far, they have drawn up the first draft Explanation, which should be submitted to the ICJ until March 2001. (hina) rml