LOWER HOUSE DISCUSSES REPORT ON DETAINED AND MISSING

ZAGREB, Feb 4 (Hina) - Detained and missing Croatian soldiers and the search for the truth about their fate is one of the most difficult humanitarian problems the Croatian Government is faced with. The destiny of 1,782 is still unknown, said the Minister of Croatian Homeland War Soldiers, Juraj Njavro, at a session of the Sabor's House of Representatives on Thursday. The Lower House is discussing a report on the work of the Government Commission for Imprisoned and Missing Persons between end September 1997 and the beginning of December 1998. Since the beginning of the Commission's work, 109 mass graves and a large number of individual burial sites have been discovered. Between end September 1997 and the end of last year, more than 1,447 bodies were exhumed, of which more than 70 per cent were identified. This is a fairly high percentage and an acknowledgement of the good work of Croatian experts. Almost 50 per cent of those exhumations were carried out last year, that is, after Croatia established full sovereignty on the whole of its territory, Njavro said. There are certain indications that about 300 Croatian soldiers have been buried in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Talks with the Yugoslav side are aimed at returning their remains to Croatia for identification and proper burial, he added. Every piece of information from the report on imprisoned and missing persons speaks about destinies, about people who were murdered, and there still is no appropriate response from The Hague Tribunal, Njavro said. "Despite the fact that crimes committed in the Croatian Danubian area are the gravest crimes since World War II, The Hague Tribunal has issued only an indictment against Mrksic, Radic and Sljivancanin and another one against Mladic", Njavro said. (hina) mm rml