FIRST CRO VICTIMOLOGY CONGRESS TO TAKE PLACE JUNE 19-21

( Editorial: --> 1872 ) ZAGREB, June 17 (Hina) - The Croatian Victimology Society will organise the first Croatian victimology congress on Homeland War victims in Zagreb between June 19 and 21. The congress aims to apply a scientific approach to show the enormous suffering of the Croatian people and to speak about the sufferings of this century which, Society president Zvonimir Separovic told reporters Wednesday, will be remembered for death camps. The congress will also speak about the victims of Bleiburg, of the Communist regime, of former Yugoslav secret services at home and abroad, the suffering of Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina, of women and children, and Croatia's cultural and religious heritage, Separovic said. Participants will hold a separate discussion on the post-traumatic stress disorder which affects the war victims, on the victims' rights and the protection of the same at the International Criminal Tribunal. Croatian Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac will be presented as a man who saved the victims during World War Two and who himself was a victim of the Communist regime. Separovic said the congress will also be an opportunity to demystify Jasenovac, a WW2 concentration camp in Croatia which has been the subject of numerous untruths. Tomorrow's extradition of the camp's former commander Dinko Sakic to Croatia will contribute to demystifying the camp's reputation, Separovic told reporters. "The Croatian Compendium of Victims", the first of three anthologies comprising the works of 150 authors, was presented at today's press conference. The anthologies will also be translated into foreign languages. The congress, whose patron is Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, will be attended by foreign victimologists and members of the Serbian and Jewish national minorities in Croatia. (hina) ha jn 171748 MET jun 98