DOLE MEETS ASSOCIATIONS OF FAMILIES OF THE MISSING

( Editorial: --> 5654 ) ZAGREB, Jan 19 (Hina) - There can be no excuses for not helping families of missing Croatian defenders and citizens, the chairman of the International Commission for Missing Persons, Robert Dole, said in Zagreb Monday during a meeting with associations of families of the missing. Dole said he had held talks with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian Presidency chairman Alija Izetbegovic, and that he is to meet with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman. The U.S. senator hoped all sides would cooperate in tracing missing persons after these talks. Dole informed the representatives of the families of the missing about his talks with Milosevic who, he said, had promised that, in a week, Yugoslavia would turn over 400 protocols referring to persons gone missing in Vukovar in 1991. According to Zvonimir Separovic, president of the Croatian Victimology Society, there are 2,165 persons in Croatia filed as missing. Dole's chairing of the ICMP gives hope that the issue of missing Croatian citizens and defenders will be resolved, Separovic said. After the meeting, Dole held talks with a dozen mothers of the missing, representatives of Apel, the Centre for the Protection of Human Rights of Detained and Missing Citizens of Croatia and Members of Their Families. (hina) ha jn 192148 MET jan 98