ALL 26 BUGOJNO CROATS WHO WENT MISSING IN 1993 ARE DEAD

MOSTAR, 1 July (Hina) - All of the 26 Croats from Bugojno (central Bosnia), who went missing in 1993, were dead, the head of the Herzeg-Bosnian Office for the exchange of imprisoned persons, Berislav Pusic, stated today. The Bosniac commission for missing and imprisoned persons had informed the Herzeg-Bosnian Office of this, Pusic added. After the cessation of Muslim-Croat conflicts in autumn 1993, the 26 Croats had been abducted by the Muslim authorities. Since then, representatives of Bosniac Croats and families of the 26 Bugojno Croats had been asking from the Bosniac side and from international organisations to discover what had happened with the 26 Croats. On several occasions, they received information that some of the prisoners were alive, and that some of them crossed over to the Serb-held territory. Finally, at the last meeting of a tripartite group for missing persons, which was held on 28 June this year in Sarajevo under the chairmanship of Bildt's deputy Michael Steiner, the head of the Bosniac commission for the exchange of imprisoned persons, Amor Masovic said that all 26 Bugojno Croats were dead. Amor Masovic gave the statement before Michael Steiner and a special representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Marc Sassoli. 'Masovic explicitly stated that the president of the Bugojno war council Dzevad Mlaco was responsible for the murder of the 26 Croats', the statement said. Berislav Pusic added he did not want to publish the information he received on 28 June ahead of Mostar elections, in order to avoid accusations that the Croat side was obstructing elections. (hina) rm jn 011251 MET jul 96