ZAGREB, Dec 3 (Hina) - The Croatian and Yugoslav commissions for missing and detained persons, who met last week in Belgrade, were in complete disagreement over the release of five Croatian citizens who had been arrested in 1995 under
espionage charges, Ivan Grujic, head of the Croatian Government Office for Missing and Detained Persons, told Hina. Croatia is searching for 1,571 missing soldiers and civilians and Yugoslavia is searching for some 500 persons who went missing mostly on the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Croatia has granted amnesty to 20,616 persons, in line with its Amnesty Act, whereas Yugoslavia has not amnestied any person and has no such law yet. Commenting on the fate of the five Croatian citizens, Grujic said that Croatia "has insisted that they be released and that the bilateral agreements be respected consistently. However, Yugoslavia makes their
ZAGREB, Dec 3 (Hina) - The Croatian and Yugoslav commissions for
missing and detained persons, who met last week in Belgrade, were in
complete disagreement over the release of five Croatian citizens
who had been arrested in 1995 under espionage charges, Ivan Grujic,
head of the Croatian Government Office for Missing and Detained
Persons, told Hina.
Croatia is searching for 1,571 missing soldiers and civilians and
Yugoslavia is searching for some 500 persons who went missing
mostly on the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Croatia has granted amnesty to 20,616 persons, in line with its
Amnesty Act, whereas Yugoslavia has not amnestied any person and
has no such law yet.
Commenting on the fate of the five Croatian citizens, Grujic said
that Croatia "has insisted that they be released and that the
bilateral agreements be respected consistently. However,
Yugoslavia makes their release conditional on the release of all
persons of Serb nationality, in line with the principle 'all for
all,' including war crimes convicts, who are serving sentences in
Croatia."
The five Croatian nationals, who have been imprisoned in Yugoslavia
since 1995, were sentenced by the Belgrade Court Martial to long
imprisonment for alleged espionage, which could last until 2004 and
2005, Grujic said. He recalled that in 1995 17 Croatian citizens had
been sentenced and imprisoned in Yugoslavia under the same charges,
of whom 12 were released and returned to Croatia after having served
their sentences.
Croatia insists on respect for the Agreement on shedding light on
the fate of missing and imprisoned persons, which was signed within
the Dayton Peace Accords, and which excludes the release of persons
accused of war crimes, Grujic said stressing "Yugoslavia is also
insisting on the release of Serbs convicted for some classic
criminal acts and are not covered by that agreement or the Amnesty
Act." Most people whose release Yugoslavia is requesting are
Croatian citizens and Yugoslavia is insisting on their release only
because they are Serbs, regardless of their citizenship or criminal
act they committed, which is unacceptable for Croatia, Grujic
said.
Apart from the five Croats, we have no data that there are more
Croatian citizens in Yugoslav prisons, Grujic said, adding that
several years ago Yugoslavia had presented an official document
saying that none of the persons Croatia was searching for was in
Yugoslav prisons. This document was forwarded to the international
community.
According to Grujic, the International Committee of the Red Cross
made several announced inspections at suspicious locations in
Yugoslavia but discovered no Croat prisoners.
Croatia is searching for 1,571 missing persons and Yugoslavia for
some 500. "Those 500 include former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA)
pilots and reservists from the 'Niksic' and 'Savnik' groups, who,
according to our information, went missing on the territory of
Bosnia-Herzegovina and not on Croatia's territory," Grujic said.
I insisted that the Serb side make a selection on where those
persons went missing and not present the same number of missing to
both Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, he said.
There are no JNA pilots in Croatian prisons, Grujic said, adding
that as far as he knew two JNA pilots had crashed on Bosnia's
territory.
Grujic believes Yugoslavia needs an amnesty law. Under its law on
general amnesty Croatia has amnestied 20,616 indicted persons, but
not those charged with war crimes, he said.
Grujic described the Belgrade meeting as "significant progress" on
the count that it took place alone.
It is progress that Croatia will take over from Yugoslavia the
remains of five victims. Only after a full identification is
carried out will we be able to say who those victims are, he said.
Croatia has also received 30 reports which should be checked on the
ground. If those reports are true, we will certainly discover the
fate of at least some of 1,571 missing persons, Grujic said.
The two commissions have signed a protocol on cooperation which
defines the schedule of talks, which should be held once a month.
This functioned until the start of NATO attacks on Yugoslavia, when
all contacts were severed. The first talks following the NATO
bombings did not take place until July this year in Zagreb.
(hina) rml