BORAS COMMENTS ON COMMISSION'S REPORT

ZAGREB, Oct 21 (Hina) - The Croatian National Sabor's House of Representatives on Friday is to discuss a report on the activities of the Committee for the Establishment of War and Post-War Victims. Since its establishment in February 1992 until September this year, the committee has recorded 153,700 victims from Croatia of whom 84,151 were civilians, the committee's secretary Florijan Boras told Hina on Thursday. The report was adopted at a committee session October 8 by more than 40 members of a total of 61. The only member not in favour of the report was Slavko Goldstein. Goldstein said that the report was "compiled irregularly based on one-sided research" and that it was not "correct that all available sources were investigated". Boras however stated that the report in no way claimed that all available sources were investigated and that Goldstein had in fact cited the report incorrectly. The report notes that "The number of victims evidenced takes into account the number of victims disclosed from all available sources investigated to date". "Certain media outlets published Goldstein's incorrect quote without even bothering to quote even one point from the actual report", Boras said. A large portion of the report concentrates on political murders of Croat political emigrants committed by the Yugoslav secret service. The report also refers to about one thousand graves and grave sites in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia. Some criticisms forwarded against the committee refer to the fact that the committee has not yet disclosed one victim as the result of activities conducted by the army of the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945), (NDH), nor have they shown any care for monuments erected in honour of the National Liberation Battle (NOB) conducted by the Yugoslav Partisans. "These grave sites have already been investigated and appropriately marked and therefore cannot be a matter for this committee to deal with", Boras said. Boras reminded that two Yugoslav commissions had already dealt with these victims. The first list of victims was drawn up in 1946 and in 1964, the research was repeated however, not one of these lists were ever publicly released. Boras claimed that the material made available to the public evidently showed that the Yugoslav commissions had multiplied the number of victims and names were often repeated. According to Boras, this was partially done to obtain higher war reparation and partially so that the Croat people could be portrayed as genocidal. "These lists do not meet the criteria set by our committee and they will be critically investigated in the coming period", he said. He emphasised that the committee had proof that the majority of mass grave sites disclosed to date were a result of crimes committed by the Yugoslav army. Boras claimed that these "were not crimes committed by uncontrolled lower army formations but rather were carried out by order of the highest ranking military and political officials in Communist Yugoslavia". The report notes several orders issued by the head of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) regarding the liquidation of the Croat army and civilians. These were crimes against the nation and were without a doubt as part of a detailed genocidal plan against Croats, Boras said. (hina) sp