BIZOVAC, Nov 26 (Hina) - The first convention of associations gathering the families of imprisoned and missing Croatian soldiers held this weekend, on Sunday warned the international and domestic public about the need to resolve
Croatia's gravest humanitarian problem - the search for the truth about the fate of 1,571 Croatian soldiers and civilians who are held missing.
BIZOVAC, Nov 26 (Hina) - The first convention of associations
gathering the families of imprisoned and missing Croatian soldiers
held this weekend, on Sunday warned the international and domestic
public about the need to resolve Croatia's gravest humanitarian
problem - the search for the truth about the fate of 1,571 Croatian
soldiers and civilians who are held missing. #L#
In all negotiations with Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and
international organisations we demand that the fate of missing and
imprisoned Croatian soldiers and civilians be imposed as a
priority, said Josip Jugec, president of the Alliance of
Associations of the Families of Missing and Imprisoned Soldiers.
Jugec said that cooperation in this problem was crucial for the
normalisation of relations with Yugoslavia.
The conference also requested that the Croatian parliament speed up
the process of search and secure funds needed for the exhumation and
identification process.
Marija Macek, president of the 'Croatian Phoenix' association from
Zagreb, said Serbs living in the areas where war crimes had been
committed did not want to cooperate in the process of discovering
mass and individual grave sites as well as that war criminals had
not been processed yet and that some of them lived freely in
Croatian towns and villages.
The associations are also dissatisfied with the pace of
identification and claim that there are 700 exhumed victims in
Zagreb and Osijek currently. If this pace of identification
continues, it will take several years to identify them, they say.
"We want the Interior Ministry's laboratory to be used (for this
purpose) along with the laboratories in Zagreb, Split and Osijek,
which are using the DNA identification method," said Ljubica Bitula
of the 'Croatian Phoenix'.
Stefica Krstic of the Osijek County Association of the Families of
Missing and Imprisoned Soldiers recalled that during the mandate of
UNTAES, UNPROFOR and other international organisations Serbs had
transferred the bodies of killed Croatian soldiers and civilians to
unidentified locations thus hampering the search.
(hina) rml