FLUOROSCOPE DONATED TO ZAGREB MEDICAL FACULTY

ZAGREB, Dec 6 (Hina) - US Ambassador to Croatia William Montgomery on Sunday handed over a fluoroscope to Zagreb's Medical Faculty. The machine is to be used in the identification of exhumed remains. The US ambassador presented the US$100,000-worth machine on behalf of the International Commission for Missing Persons' (ICMP) president, a former US senator Robert Dole. Dole's plane could not land today in Zagreb due to poor weather conditions so the US official had to continue his journey from Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he was on a visit on Saturday, to the United States. Ambassador Montgomery said he regretted that senator Dole and his delegation could not visit Zagreb today, adding that he would consider whether the ICMP could increase its assistance to the Croatian Government's Commission for Missing and Imprisoned Persons. There can be no lasting peace until the issue of missing people is solved, Montgomery said. The fluoroscope is an advanced X-ray machine which can provide photographs of a whole body as well as video shots which help in the identification process. The Government Commission for Missing and Imprisoned Persons' president Ivan Grujic said it was important for the identification process to be continually improved. The donated device will help in the identification procedure, Grujic said presenting the device to the gathered, which included representatives of families of the missing and imprisoned. There are 1,795 missing and imprisoned persons in Croatia today, mostly from the Vukovar-Srijem County. So far, 2,854 bodies have been exhumed in Croatia, of whom 2,183 were identified, Grujic said. "Of that number, 938 bodies were exhumed from the largest mass grave in Europe since World War II - that at the Vukovar New Cemetery", he added. The gathered at today's presentation were also shown a film on the exhumation of remains from a water well in Erdut, eastern Slavonia, and the exhumation of mass graves in Bacin and Vukovar. The ICMP was founded in 1996 at the Lyon G7 summit and its first chairman was former US secretary of state Cyrus Vance. Senator Dole took over the chairmanship in November last year. The purpose of the Commission is to incite interested governments to intensify efforts in solving the cases of missing persons, support individual projects of agencies operating in the former Yugoslavia region, whose activities are directed at solving the problem of missing people, and to help their families. (hina) rml