HEAD OF SISAK POLICE SPEAKS ABOUT KOSTAJNICA INCIDENTS

SISAK, June 7 (Hina) - The head of the Sisak Police Administration, Miroslav Akmadza, on Friday told reporters that the police "found the perpetrators of crimes in the Kostajnica incidents". Twelve persons were found, while charges were pressed against ten adults. Yesterday, the Municipal Court in Hrvatska Kostajnica said in a statement that it had accepted the bills of inditement against the ten mentioned. Akmadza told reporters that the police also found out the person who committed arson during the Kostajnica incidents. He is a citizen of Croatian nationality, who during investigation admitted to being guilty. A citizen of Serb nationality was arrested and detained under the suspicion that he set fire to his house and three business buildings, Akmadza added. The head of the Sisak Police Administration also informed reporters about results of an investigation into the death of Mirko Knezevic, 61, from the village of Blinjska Greda near Sisak who, according to reports in some papers, "was killed because he was defending his neighbour, a Serb woman". The papers also claimed he "is the first victim of the Kostajnica events". According to Akmadza, it was proved that Knezevic had been beaten by I.D. from Komarevo near Sisak, and that as a result of injuries, he died in a Sisak hospital. The incident, Akmadza added, did not occur because Knezevic had defended neighbours of Serb nationality, but was the result of earlier unsolved property relations. I.D. from Komarevo did take part in violent behaviour towards persons of Serb nationality, but his incident with Knezevic took place four days after that, Akmadza said. After the 13 to 15 May incidents in Hrvatska Kostajnica, no major incident relating to the return of Serbs from the Croatian Danube region occurred, Akmadza pointed out. The number of policemen and police patrols in the Banovina and Kordun areas, liberated in the "Storm" military operation in summer 1995, had been raised, Akmadza told reporters, adding that in some police stations there had also been changes of staff. Akmadza also presented data on the return to Sisak County after the Croatian Government signed with UNTAES and UNHCR the Agreement on Return of Displaced Persons in Osijek on 23 April. 312 Serbs had returned to the county from the Croatian Danube region, he said, explaining that 228 returned to their homes, 45 opted for a temporary stay with relatives, while 39 Serbs returned back to the Danube region since their houses were not fit for living or were occupied by displaced Croats from Bosnia-Herzegovina. The return of most Serbs was unorganized and outside the return plan, Akmadza said, adding that the police forwarded such returnees to the Sisak Regional Office for Displaced Persons and Refugees, which then provided them with accommodation. According to the head of the Sisak Police Administration's Crime Department, Ivan Tounec, the remains of 488 bodies of Croatian defenders and civilians, killed during the Homeland War by aggressor and occupation authorities, had been exhumed in the Kordun and Banovina area after their liberation. Thirty-three mass graves had been discovered, he said, adding that the remains of 840 missing persons were still to be traced. (hina) ha jn 071336 MET jun 97