CRO GOVT COMMISSION FOR IMPRISONED, MISSING PERSONS MEETS FAMILIES

FAMILIES $ OF IMPRISONED, MISSING ZAGREB, Aug 28 (Hina) - The Croatian government's Commission for Imprisoned and Missing Persons on Wednesday held a meeting with the representatives of organizations of the families of imprisoned and missing Croatian soldiers at which it presented a report on the results of a meeting with representatives of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's government Commission for Humanitarian Issues and Missing Persons held in Zagreb on 20 August. Croatian vice-premier Ivica Kostovic said that at that meeting the Yugoslav side officially stated that prisons in Yugoslavia detained no persons Croatia was looking for. President of the Croatian government's Commission Major Ivan Grujic said the Yugoslav side had delivered a list of 1,150 persons considered to be dead, containing only names, without additional data. The document could not be accepted, Grujic said, because the Yugoslav side had photos of more than 350 persons from the Vukovar area, eastern Croatia. Grujic reiterated the possibility that the imprisoned had been transported from Yugoslavia to regions in Bosnia held by Bosnian Serbs, adding that a meeting to be held in Sarajevo at which Bosnian Serbs should deliver their lists had been initiated. 98 persons Croatia was looking for were on the Yugoslav list, Grujic said, adding that their families had been informed about it. The families of the imprisoned and missing received the report with sadness, pointing out that there could be no living together and negotiations with Serbs if they had killed even one imprisoned Croatian soldier. Many, however, believe their loved ones to be still alive and demand that employees of the International Red Cross visit all prisons in Yugoslavia. Grujic said that this had been done and that 11 persons imprisoned in 1995 had been found. Representatives of the families of the imprisoned and missing strongly complained to the Croatian government that two years after the "Flash" and one year after the "Storm" liberation operations, exhumations of mass graves in which Serb rebels buried Croatian soldiers and civilians had still not been performed. "We demand that you immediately start with the exhumation and identification, and if our medicine is incapable of doing it, then look for international help", said Marija Macek, mother of a missing soldier. Kostovic concluded by saying that the process of tracing imprisoned and missing persons was not over. (hina) ha 281921 MET aug 96