OSCE MINORITIES COMMISSIONER AND VUKOVAR COUNT REP. HOLD TALKS

VUKOVAR, June 4 (Hina) - The OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) High Commissioner for National Minorities, Max van der Stoel, on Friday visited Vukovar where he held talks with a Deputy County Prefect of Vukovar-Sirmium, Andrija Matic. After the one-hour meeting behind the closed doors, the OSCE official briefly told reporters that they had considered different issues such as the return, reconstruction, economy and multiethnic relations. Matic explained that the major objections of the OSCE official referred to the developments in the village of Berak where Croatian returnees have been protested for one month while trying to find the truth about their family members who had gone missing during the Yugoslav Army-supported Serb aggression against and occupation of this village. According to our information, some of demonstrators in Berak, discontinued the protest after they learned of the fate of their dearest. We expect that after the dignified funeral (of remains of those who have been found in mass graves), the entire protest in Berak will end. I have acquainted Max van der Stoel with this stand, the local official added. During the Serb occupation of this eastern Slavonian village, 29 villagers went missing. Recently, several corpses were unearthed from a mass grave and a well. Remains of 19 people have been exhumed from those sites, and according to things and belongings found with the dead bodies, Berak villagers believe that those killed people were their fellow villagers. The official identification of the remains is to be on Monday, June 7, at Vinkovci hospital. The OSCE High Commissioner for Minorities van der Stoel tackled these issues during yesterday's talks with representatives of local Serbs - officials of the Joint Council of Municipalities (ZVO) and the Independent Serb Democratic Party (SSSD). He is expected to meet Branimir Glavas, County Prefect of Osijek- Baranja, another eastern Croatian area. (hina) ms