CROATIA STILL SEARCHING FOR 2197 MISSING PERSONS ( Editorial: --> 2044 )

( Editorial: --> 2044 ) ZAGREB, 19 Nov (Hina) - The truth about the fate of 353 persons who had been imprisoned or had gone missing during the Serb aggression on Croatia was discovered between 27 November 1996 and 21 October 1997, Croatian Vice Premier Ivica Kostovic told the Croatian Parliament on Wednesday. The Vice Premier received cross bench support when he presented a report on the work of the Commission for Missing and Imprisoned Persons to the House of Representatives. MPs asked that all conditions for exhumation and identification be secured, as well as that all mass and individual burial sites be properly marked. Kostovic told parliament the issue of missing and imprisoned persons had been and remained a humanitarian and political question of the greatest importance, especially in negotiations with Belgrade. According to Kostovic, 700 protocols had been received from the Yugoslav authorities, 333 of them belonging to unidentified victims. The remains of 475 persons had been exhumed and 397 persons identified since the end of November last year. The Commission for Missing and Imprisoned Persons is currently searching for 2,197 missing persons. These days, when we remember the crimes in Vukovar with sadness, we should say that the identification of 89 persons from the Ovcara mass grave has been completed, Kostovic said. The remains of 68 persons were exhumed from a mass grave in Lovas, and 67 of them were identified. The remains of 56 civilians were exhumed from the Bacin mass grave (in the area of Banovina). The Croatian Government will continue the search for missing persons, Kostovic said. (hina) jn rm 191706 MET nov 97