ZAGREB, Feb 4 (Hina) - The Croatian Sabor's House of Representatives on Thursday endorsed a report on the work of the Government Commission for Missing and Imprisoned Persons between September 26, 1997 and December 5, 1998. MPs agreed
that the Government and Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to be even more efficacious in the talks with Yugoslavia and the international community so that the fate of the missing and imprisoned could be discovered. The problem of missing and imprisoned soldiers lies heavy on our conscience and burdens our life; those searching for their dearest ones are suffering and doing all they can to find the truth, said Vladimir Seks of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), a view reiterated by other parliamentary bench presidents. Seks requested that the Government undertake to continue its efforts in implementing the regulations of the Dayton Agreement and an agreement between the C
ZAGREB, Feb 4 (Hina) - The Croatian Sabor's House of
Representatives on Thursday endorsed a report on the work of the
Government Commission for Missing and Imprisoned Persons between
September 26, 1997 and December 5, 1998.
MPs agreed that the Government and Ministry of Foreign Affairs had
to be even more efficacious in the talks with Yugoslavia and the
international community so that the fate of the missing and
imprisoned could be discovered.
The problem of missing and imprisoned soldiers lies heavy on our
conscience and burdens our life; those searching for their dearest
ones are suffering and doing all they can to find the truth, said
Vladimir Seks of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), a view
reiterated by other parliamentary bench presidents.
Seks requested that the Government undertake to continue its
efforts in implementing the regulations of the Dayton Agreement and
an agreement between the Croatian and Yugoslav foreign ministers on
the exchange of POWs, which is being evaded by the Yugoslav side.
Snjezana Biga-Friganovic of the Social-Democratic Party (SDP)
asked that additional funding be secured for the Commission's work.
SDP representatives have signed a petition sent to The Hague
Tribunal requesting the trial of the main war criminal, Slobodan
Milosevic.
According to Anto Djapic of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP), the
attitude of the Serbian side towards the problem of imprisoned and
missing Croats bears witness to the failure of the concept of
normalising relations with Yugoslavia.
Josko Kontic of the Croatian Social-Liberal Party (HSLS) said that,
considering the data from the report, "maybe the normalisation of
relations with our until-yesterday enemy was premature".
The problem of genocide of Croats should be raised to a higher
level, said Djapic proposing the establishment of a special
institution, a memorial centre.
The session stressed the need for investigating war crimes and
processing war criminals as soon as possible. Most objections
presented during the session referred to the work of The Hague
Tribunal.
The Labour, Social Policy and Health Committee also believes that
the possibility of modifying the Tribunal's mandate should be
considered because "with its existing mandate, the Tribunal has
still not managed to process criminals and aggressors from
Yugoslavia", said Vera Pivcevic Stanic.
The MPs also stressed the need for better equipping and enlarging
identification teams, with the aim of speeding up the
identification process.
The slow identification process was also pointed out by the Labour
Committee, which estimated that with the present pace of five
identified persons per month, the identification of the remaining
671 victims would take another 10 years.
Croatia has been dealing with the problem of missing and imprisoned
people since August 1991. Of the 18,000 detained and missing it
searched for initially, Croatia today searches for 1,782 persons;
6,870 were exchanged, said Foreign Minister Mate Granic at the of
today's discussion.
(hina) mm rml