FAMILIES OF MISSING PERSONS HOLD MEETING IN ZAGREB

ZAGREB, 3 July (Hina) - Representatives of the families of missing and imprisoned Croatian soldiers held a meeting in Zagreb, Thursday, at which they discussed ways of finding out the truth about the missing, which they have been waiting for six years, as well as the identification of victims exhumed from individual and mass graves. The meeting was also attended by Parliament Vice President Jadranka Kosor, head of the Government Commission for Imprisoned and Missing Persons, Lieutenant Ivan Gruic, and president of the Croatian Victimological Society, Zvonimir Separovic. Ljubica Batula, coordinator of the Union of Associations of Families of Missing Persons, said that there were many problems in the process of exhumation and identification of victims. The analysis which includes isolation of DNA is complicated and very expensive, there are not enough experts and one should insist on classic identification methods, Batula said. Parliament Vice President Kosor said she would demand regular reports on the search for missing persons from the Government. There are 2,275 missing persons registered with the Commission for Imprisoned and Missing Persons, Lieutenant Gruic said, adding that in 1993 the number of missing persons exceeded 13,000. "Despite obvious progress, we cannot be satisfied until the last case is solved," Gruic said. Out of 1,337 persons exhumed from 63 mass graves in Croatia, 997 have been identified, and out of those 997, 452 are on the list of missing persons, Grujic said. There were 110 Croatian citizens who went missing in Bosnia- Herzegovina, Grujic said, adding that parents and families of missing persons should exert stronger pressure on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other international organisations so that they could make stronger efforts in solving the problem of missing persons. (hina) rm jn 031618 MET jul 97