EXHUMATION OF CROATIAN CIVILIANS KILLED IN PAKRAC AREA BEGINS

PAKRAC, Oct 3 (Hina) - Experts of the Croatian government commission for detainees and missing persons on Thursday began exhuming the bodies of Croatian civilians killed by Serb forces in the Pakrac and Lipik area in 1991. Investigators of the Defence Ministry's Department for Exhumations will search several potential mass grave sites in the area. The head of the Exhumations Department, Col. Mladen Pezelj, said that the bodies of 11 mainly elderly people would be recovered from mass graves at Dragovic, Pakracki Vinogradi and Kusonje, villages near Pakrac, and at Kukunjevac near Lipik. The exumation was monitored by European Union observers, local police and representatives of the Pozega County court. About 15 Croatian civilians were exhumed from mass graves at Pakracki Vinogradi and Caglic last year. (hina) vm 031959 MET oct 96