LOWER HOUSE ENDS DISCUSSION OF WORK OF COMMISSION FOR MISSING AND DETAINED PERSONS

DETAINED PERSONS ZAGREB, Dec 6 (Hina) - The Croatian Parliament House of Representatives on Friday ended a discussion on the Report on the work of the Commission for Missing and Detained Persons (in the period from 10 June to 28 October 1996). Greeting representatives of families who were present at the discussion, Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Kostovic said that in the mentioned period, the Commission had held 15 conversations with Belgrade. For the first time, Yugoslavia in August confirmed in writing and with full responsibility that there were no war prisoners in Yugoslav prisons, but that there were prisoners who had been apprehended for espionage. "That was a shock for all the families, as well as the government, because nobody expected the fact that of a total of 2,500 persons, 1,300 persons from Vukovar only, none of them were imprisoned," Kostovic said. The Commission had asked representatives from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) for information about 1,096 persons for whom they had known were not alive, out of which 341 had been registered as unidentified. FRY representatives had submitted a report to the Croatian Commission about 20 persons who could be considered killed or dead, Kostovic said. He added that talks with Bosnian Serbs continued (about the whereabouts of pilot Rudolf Perisin and soldiers from Posavina and Kupres) Recalling talks with local Serb representatives from UNTAES- administered areas, Kostovic said that the Commission had access to the area, with the full consent of UNTAES, adding that four exhumations had been carried out in the area under the organization of the Croatian government. Speaking about the mass grave on Ovcara, near Vukovar, Kostovic said that after the exhumation, the bodies of 200 persons had been taken to Zagreb, where the process of identification had begun. The preliminary identification of 66 persons had shown that over 90 percent of them had been soldiers and the wounded who had been taken from the hospital in Vukovar. "This knowledge is surely difficult and painful," Kostovic said. In the period from June to October, 401 bodies had been exhumed and 318 identified, Kostovic said. The Commission had intensified the search for the remains of 488 persons in liberated areas, especially in the Banovina region (about 50 kilometres southeast of Zagreb), as well as the search for missing persons who might still be alive, he said. MP's accepted the Report on the work of the Commission. They stressed the importance of joint efforts of the Parliament, government, associations and other bodies in the search for information about missing and detained persons. They agreed that three locations had to be established where the remains should be buried of persons from mass graves who were impossible to identify. 061453 MET dec 96