LETTER TO ICRC: WHERE ARE DETAINED CROATS OF BUGOJNO ?

LIVNO, Jan 6 (HBNA/Hina) - The Trusteeship of the Bugojno HVO, based in Livno, forwarded yesterday a letter to the ICRC in Geneva warning about violations of the principles of the Geneva Convention on war prisoners by Moslem forces in the occupied Bugojno. "The Croatian civilian population in Bugojno has been suffering hunger, looting, maltreatment and even murders at the hands of the Moslems for five months now," said the letter adding that the motive for the letter is the life of detainees in the camp Stadion in Bugojno. "The ICRC has tried several times to do the inspection and registration of detainees, but they managed to do so only twice (on 28 September and 24 November 1993). In both cases they registered about 200 detainees. The others were taken out of the camp during the ICRC visit, so that about 150 detainees were not registered at all," said the letter. "The worst of all is taking detainees from the camp to the unknown. In October 24 detainees were taken away, individually or in groups. Since then every trace of them has been lost," said the letter. "We request the ICRC to do its best in order to trace these people. If Moslem authorities refuse telling the truth about the destiny of these people, we demand that the world public be informed accordingly," said the letter at the end. 061246 MET jan 94