"APEL" CENTRE WRITES TO PARLIAMENT LOWER HOUSE ( Editorial: --> 2117 )

( Editorial: --> 2117 ) ZAGREB, 19 Nov (Hina) - The centre for the protection of human rights of missing and imprisoned Croatian citizens and members of their families "Apel" has sent a letter to the Croatian Parliament House of Representatives concerning a parliament report on the work of the Commission for Missing and Imprisoned Persons between 27 November 1996 and 21 October 1997. In its letter "Apel" asked the lower house to make decisions which would bind the Government to secure financial and other conditions for the employment of experts in the Commission's office for contact with the families of missing and imprisoned persons and for the work of psychological-social aid services within state administration bodies. "Apel" wants in this way to accelerate the process of exhumation and identification of remains and secure the proper marking of all mass and individual burial sites and in connection with that reach an agreement with the U.N. Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES). "Apel" suggested that the Government ask the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to provide a detailed statement on the number of registered persons between November 1991 and February 1994. The Government should also ask the U.N. Secretary General and the Human Rights Centre in Geneva to comment on their activities concerning missing and imprisoned Croatian soldiers and citizens, and relating to the 1992 report of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Tadeusz Mazowiecki to the United Nations. "Apel" also demanded that the question of responsibility for the inappropriate solution of housing problems of members of families of missing and imprisoned persons be discussed, as well as that the Government immediately prepare a bill on the protection of disabled war veterans. (hina) rm 191825 MET nov 97