PROTEST RALLY STAGED IN FRONT OF ZAGREB ICRC HEADQUARTERS

ZAGREB, Sept 9 (Hina) - A Croatian association of former prisoners of Serb concentration camps and representatives of the centre for the protection of rights of missing Croatian citizens, "Apel", on Thursday staged a protest rally in front of the Zagreb headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The protesters lit candles in memory of all those who had gone missing during the Serbian aggression. The purpose of the rally was to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the work of the ICRC which, the protesters claim, has not done anything to protect the imprisoned during the Serb aggression, nor later - in the search for the missing and the provision of financial and logistic support for the Croatian Government in exhumation activities. "Apel" members started lighting candles in front of the ICRC headquarters on August 12, on the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Geneva Convention. The action has since continued every Thursday and will continue until the end of this year, said Zdenka Farkas, head of "Apel". Croatia is still searching for 1,687 persons who went missing during the Serb aggression. A representative of the association of former prisoners of Serb concentration camps read out a protest letter addressed to ICRC President Cornelio Sommaruga. In the letter, the association asks how many ICRC delegates were sent to Vukovar in November 1991 and demands that the book with the names of all prisoners ICRC representatives visited between 1991 and 1996 be published. It is further said in the letter that Croatian soldiers and civilians were killed in camps in Serbia after their capture in Vukovar, that they were tortured during their imprisonment, and that many of them remained in prisons after the last big exchange of POWs in August 1992. (hina) jn rml