MEETING OF CROATIAN, YUGOSLAV COMMISSIONS FOR MISSING, IMPRISONED PERSONS ENDS

PERSONS ENDS ZAGREB, 21 Aug (Hina) - In accordance with the signed Protocol and the pace the question of imprisoned, missing and abducted persons is being solved at, the working groups of the Croatian Commission for Imprisoned and Missing Persons and the Yugoslav Commission for Humanitarian Issues ended their two day-meeting in Zagreb on Wednesday. The groups were led by the presidents of the two commissions, Major Ivan Grujic and Pavle Todorovic. After the meeting, the two officials held a press conference. #L# 'The signed Protocol envisages an exchange of information on persons the two sides are holding and the aim of our meeting was to clarify those questions', the head of the Croatian group Ivan Grujic told reporters and stressed that members of the Yugoslav commission had officially stated that 'Yugoslav authorities are holding not a single missing person from the Republic of Croatia'. 'We were surprised and sad to hear it, but the process is not completed and it will continue', Grujic said. The signed Protocol envisaged that all available data on killed persons, with their names and surnames, should be exchanged by 15 September. 'At this moment, the Yugoslav side provided us with a list with 700 identified and 300 unidentified persons. The Croatian families have already been informed about a list with 600 identified persons, which was presented by the Yugoslav side at the Budapest meeting', Major Grujic said. Grujic said that Croatia would abide by its list with 1,400 missing persons. Croatia would continue to insist on that list, moreover the Yugoslav side had earlier publicized that number, based on data by the Belgrade Military Medical Academy. The Croatian Commission, Grujic continued, would closely analyze the list it received today from the Yugoslav side and then publicize the data, although they were already known to the families of missing and imprisoned persons. A meeting which is to be held in Belgrade on 15 September would provide new data on killed persons who had been identified and who were from the areas which had been under control of the former Yugoslav People's Army, Grujic said. Croatia had 2,605 missing persons, but only after the Yugoslav side had presented its documents on 15 September meeting would it be possible for the Croatian side to present concrete data and say how many persons from the Croatian list were on the Yugoslav list, Grujic said. During the two-day meeting in Zagreb the two sides agreed to hold a meeting on missing persons from Bosnia. The head of the Yugoslav Commission for Humanitarian Issues, Pavle Todorovic, said that numerous documents had been exchanged during the meeting. 'I state with full responsibility that we have brought all documents Yugoslavia possesses, and they contain 700 identified and 300 unidentified persons from the Vukovar area', Todorovic said. He added that his delegation had received information that three persons who were in Croatian prisons would probably be released while 149 persons arrested during the military operations 'Flash' and 'Storm' had been imprisoned and that court processes were being conducted against them. The number of missing persons was high on both sides, Todorovic said, adding that after 'Flash' and 'Storm' there were 600 unidentified persons the Serbian side wanted to be informed about. That called for further cooperation between the two sides which would have to take great efforts and together with the families of missing persons try to identify those persons, Todorovic said, adding he agreed that the joint search for missing persons in Bosnia-Herzegovina was very important because of the completion of the overall problem of missing persons. (hina) rm 211717 MET aug 96