 |
Croatia, Yugoslavia to Swap Info on Missing and Killed By Jovan Kovacic
"The implementation of the agreements should provide answers to the destinies of thousands of missing, killed or imprisoned persons," he told a news conference. Minority Serbs, helped by the Yugoslav army, rebelled against Croatia's seccession from former Yugoslavia in 1991. They proclaimed their own state on one third of Croatian territory and turned down several peace proposals drawn up by the international community. Thousands were killed or went missing in the bitter war.
In 1995 Croatian troops stormed two Serb enclaves and recaptured all lost territory apart from Eastern Slavonia and forcing 200,000 Serbs to flee to safety in Serbia, Bosnia and Eastern Slavonia. Under the agreement struck by expert teams from Belgrade and Zagreb over the weekend in Yugoslav capital, Croatia will release all prisoners of war possibly by August 20, he said. In another breakthrough, Croatia has accepted Yugoslavia's claim that it holds no prisoners of war, he said.
"The only people we have in our custody are those who are accused of spying and conspiring against the state," Todorovic said. He would not give exact numbers but indicated there were no more than a dozen people charged with the crime. "The Yugoslav side is resolved to finally shed the stigma of Vukovar," he said. "In agreement with the Yugoslav army and the Military Academy Hostital we have started giving out information regarding all people we know about including those not sought by the Croatian side," Todorovic said.
Croat media claims thousands have been killed or gone missing in the Vukovar campaign but the Serbian side says the numbers are vastly exaggerated. The issue of missing persons remains one of the last stumbling blocks in the gradual but steady normalisation of relations between the two countries.
On Monday the Croatia mission in Belgrade started consular operations after the recent demilitarisation of the last Serb enclave in the Eastern Slavonia bordering with Serbia proper. The area is policed by joint Croat-Serb forces for the first time since May 1991 when first major fighting broke out in Borovo Selo, near Vukovar. Agreement on Eastern Slavonia was reached on the fringes of the Dayton peace talks last November envisaging its restoration to Zagreb's rule in two years time with the help of U.N. adminstration and 5,000 peacekeepers.
The two states have since started normalising relations by opening a vital motorway, restoring telephone and postal links, transport and communications and reopening an oil pipeline. |
BELGRADE, July 8 (Reuters) - Croatia and rump Yugoslavia agreed to exchange data on missing, detained and killed persons during their bitter 1991 war in a step towards normalising relations, a Yugoslav expert said. "We have made a significant step forward. We are speeding up the solution to these burning issues now that peace has been restored," Pavle Todorovic, head of the Yugoslav commission for humanitarian issues and missing persons, said on Monday.
Berserkistan, June 17 · Zagreb Ready to Normalize Relations with Belgrade
Yugoslav Crisis and the World A Chronology by Brana Markovic
Berserkistan is the world news service of
Pacific Interactive Media Corp.
EMail Berserkistan
©1995-1996, All Rights Reserved