FAMILIES OF MISSING CROATIAN SOLDIERS HOLD TALKS WITH VANCE

ZAGREB, June 19 (Hina) - During a meeting with Cyrus Vance, the president of the International Commission for Missing Persons in the former Yugoslavia (ICMP), families of detained and missing Croatian soldiers have asked for help of international experts in the search of mass graves. Representatives of the "Hrvatski Feniks", the society of families of detained and missing Croatian defenders, held the meeting with Vance in Zagreb on Thursday morning. The society said that mass graves sites were scattered in Croatian areas (formerly occupied by Serb rebels) including parts of Karlovac, Glina, Petrinja, Hrvatska Kostajnica, Dvor na Uni, Knin, Benkovac and the Zadar hinterland. Assistance of experts is very needed in Banovina liberated in 1995, but only a half of missing persons of the area have been found so far. The society notified Vance of difficulties in identification of the killed victims, whose bodies have been unearthed from the Ovcara mass grave near Vukovar, and asked that medical and other documentation that is believed to have been taken from Vukovar hospital to Belgrade, can be used. The families told Vance they hoped that the ICMP, set up at an initiative of U.S. President Bill Clinton, would help to establish the fate of missing persons whose whereabouts have not been known since the onset of the Homeland War. (hina) mš 191026 MET jun 97