PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION OF 12 VICTIMS TAKES PLACE IN KOSTAJNICA

( Editorial: --> 4203 ) HRVATSKA KOSTAJNICA, April 2 (Hina) - The preliminary identification of another 12 victims of the Serbian aggression has been completed, Commission for Missing and Imprisoned Persons president Ivan Grujic said in Hrvatska Kostajnica on Thursday. Personal belongings and clothing found in graves were used in the identification of bodies exhumed in the area of Hrvatska Kostajnica (about 80km south-east of Zagreb). Since the liberation of the area in 1995, 126 victims have been exhumed and 81 have still not been identified, Grujic said adding the exhumations would continue. So far 546 people have been exhumed in the whole of Sisak County. Of that number, 422 were identified, Grujic said. He added that 380 missing people were being sought. Of that number, 103 are being sought in the town area, including 38 Croatian defenders. The Croatian Government's Commission for Missing and Imprisoned Persons is searching for another 2,069 people, including 1,000 civilians, throughout the country. So far 1,678 victims of the Serbian aggression have been exhumed in the whole of Croatia. Of that number, 1,367 have been identified and the identification of 311 people is underway. The Commission is having intensive talks with the Yugoslav and Bosnian Serb authorities so that places of death and burial of missing people from Croatia could be established, Grujic said. After the talks with Yugoslav authorities in Belgrade on Monday and Tuesday, new exhumations could be expected in the area of Banovina (part of Sisak County), Grujic said. (hina) jn rm /mb 021729 MET apr 98