IDENTIFICATION OF OVCARA MASS GRAVE VICTIMS BEGINS

ZAGREB, Oct 8 (Hina) - International forensic experts have begun "processing" the bodies exhumed from the Ovcara mass grave in Serb- held eastern Croatia, Dr Davor Strinovic of the Zagreb Institute of Forensic Medicine said on Tuesday. The processing of bodies includes determining the causes of death and identification, Strinovic told a news conference in Zagreb. The organization "Physicians for Human Rights" is in charge of the process on behalf of the International Criminal Tribunal. After they gather enough evidence for the Hague-based tribunal, they will leave identification to Croatian experts. The identification of a person is considered completed if his identity is confirmed by his next of kin. The names of victims will be released after the identification of all victims. Data gathered by the Zagreb Institute of Forensic Medicine since 1991 will facilitate the identification and will be compared with the investigation's findings. Strinovic said that documents from the Vukovar Hospital would have been of great help to the investigation but their whereabouts were not known. Croatia has demanded from Yugoslav authorities to hand over the documentation, assuming that it was taken to Belgrade by the Yugoslav army after its occupation of Vukovar, but there has been no response from Belgrade to date. Strinovic said that only the British television which had filmed the exhumation had the right to film the identification process, but that it would give a copy of filmed material to Croatian institutions. A Yugoslav forensic expert arrived in Zagreb on Tuesday to monitor the process. However, a representative from the UN- administered area did not appear because the Croatian side insisted that he should be an expert and the Serb side apparently could not provide one. (hina) vm mm 081907 MET oct 96