ZAGREB, Feb 2 (Hina) - Croatia registers 1,782 missing persons, Croatian Minister for Homeland War Veterans, Juraj Njavro, told the Croatian national Parliament's House of Counties on Tuesday. On Tuesday morning, the upper house
commenced the session with a discussion on a report on the work of the Government Commission for Detainees and Missing Persons. The report covered the period from September 1997 to the beginning of December 1998. Since the beginning of the Commission's activities, 109 mass graves have been unearthed in Croatia. The latest one was discovered in Erdut, eastern Slavonia, on Monday, February 1. Furthermore, a great number of individual graves have also been found out. Since 1995, 2,854 corpses have been exhumed, and 70 percent (or 2,183) of the victims have been identified. According to Njavro, this high percentage of the identification shows that Croatian forensic specialists are skilful and
ZAGREB, Feb 2 (Hina) - Croatia registers 1,782 missing persons,
Croatian Minister for Homeland War Veterans, Juraj Njavro, told the
Croatian national Parliament's House of Counties on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, the upper house commenced the session with a
discussion on a report on the work of the Government Commission for
Detainees and Missing Persons. The report covered the period from
September 1997 to the beginning of December 1998.
Since the beginning of the Commission's activities, 109 mass graves
have been unearthed in Croatia. The latest one was discovered in
Erdut, eastern Slavonia, on Monday, February 1.
Furthermore, a great number of individual graves have also been
found out.
Since 1995, 2,854 corpses have been exhumed, and 70 percent (or
2,183) of the victims have been identified. According to Njavro,
this high percentage of the identification shows that Croatian
forensic specialists are skilful and efficient.
One of the most demanding tasks which the Commission had to do was to
exhume bodies from the mass grave at Ovcara and "Novo Groblje"
(Cemetery) in Vukovar where remains of 938 people had been dug up,
Njavro told the deputies.
Croatia managed to obtain the identification protocols for those
buried at the cemetery during the talks with Yugoslavia
(Serbia/Montenegro).
It received a total of 1,093 identification protocols, the
Commission's head, Ivan Grujic said adding that protocols, which
the Yugoslav side gave to Croatia, had been made after photos were
taken and reports made about victims.
One of the priorities of the Commission is to obtain documentation
and eventually the remains of about 300 persons who were buried in
Yugoslavia and who are still registered as unidentified persons.
Last December, remains of five such persons were forwarded to
Croatia, Grujic added.
Croatia's talks about missing or detained people in the area of
Bosnia-Herzegovina yielded certain results. Croatia is trying to
establish the fate of 99 persons who were detained or went missing
in Bosnia, Grujic said.
Minister Njavro said 18,000 people had been released from Serb-run
concentration camps since 1991.
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