HOMELAND WAR ASSOCIATIONS HOLD CONFERENCE ON EXHUMATIONS

( Editorial: --> 1022 ) BOROVO NASELJE, June 13 (Hina) - The union of Homeland War associations Saturday held a conference on the exhumation, identification and burial of Croatian defenders and civilians who took part in the defence of Vukovar. Staged in the eastern Croatian town, the conference was the first in a series scheduled to take place in all county headquarters around Croatia. Speaking on behalf of the union, Nenad Zovak said the motive for the conference was "the silence of the Croatian people and media" on the exhumation and burials at the New Cemetery in Vukovar. The burials of victims exhumed from the cemetery take place every Saturday. "We have the feeling that the Croatian state is ashamed of those whom we bury every Saturday", Zovak assessed. The head of the Croatian government's commission for detained and missing persons Ivan Grujic spoke about the course of exhumations of graves throughout Croatia. Government teams have exhumed 101 mass graves and many single graves to date, he said. The number of victims exhumed is 1,700, excluding those exhumed at the New Cemetery in Vukovar. Grujic pointed out that 28 mass graves had been exhumed in Vukovar- Srijem County alone. Speaking about the reasons for the exhumation, Grujic said they were humanitarian ones, but also emphasised they were an attempt to determine the fate of people gone missing during the Homeland War. There were three burial periods at the Vukovar New Cemetery mass grave, which contains about 1,200 bodies, Grujic said. The first round took place during the Serbian aggression on the town when the burials were carried out by the town's defenders. Following occupation, the Serbs exhumed some of the bodies and buried them at the New Cemetery where people killed on occupation day were also buried. According to Grujic, those people were killed in the streets, in their homes and basements. The third burial period also took place during the time the town was occupied. This time the victims were prisoners of war and imprisoned civilians. Out of 750 bodies exhumed from the New Cemetery mass grave so far, 107 are on the missing persons list, Grujic said. Prior to today's conference a half-hour documentary film on Vukovar's plight was shown. The Homeland War Defenders Minister Juraj Njavro was also in attendance. (hina) ha 131956 MET jun 98