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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Progress made in solving issues of missing persons during war conflict in Croatia

Belgrade, 28 July 2010

President of the Serbian Commission for Missing Persons Veljko Odalovic and President of the Croatian Commission for the Missing and Detained Ivan Grujic stated that progress has been made in solving issues of missing persons during the war conflict in Croatia from the 1990s.

Odalovic and Grujic said that there are about 2,000 people listed as missing.

Odalovic confirmed that since the last meeting of the two commissions, 112 bodies were exhumed and 78 missing persons were identified.

He emphasised that solving the issue of missing persons can contribute to stability in the region and reiterated that the presidents of the two countries, Boris Tadic and Ivo Josipovic, also marked the issue of missing persons as their priorities.

He specified that locations in Petrovaradin, Ruma and Backa Palanka will be examined as there is suspicion that bodies related to the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia might be there.

Serbia insists on the examination of about 400 burial places in Croatia, mostly related to the Croatian military operations Flash and Storm as well as some military actions from earlier periods of the war in Croatia.

Odalovic outlined that there is a certain number of missing persons who are not in the book of the missing because their cases have not met the criteria of the International Committee of the Red Cross, but expressed his hope that the list of the missing will be updated.

Grujic recalled that out of a total of 1,860 missing people in Croatia, 1,024 went missing from 1991 to 1995 while others were reported as missing in the Flash and Storm operations.

He added that 1,392 graves were recorded after these two actions, of which 700 were exhumed.

Grujic reflected that they discussed issues of the Vukovar hospital documents and persons missing in the territory of Serbia and territory of Croatia controlled by Serbian forces.

Odalovic and Grujic noted that since the meeting in Zagreb last year, both sides had fulfilled their commitments.

Grujic recounted that the Serbian commission requested the exhumation in western Slavonia, as well as the identification of persons in Pakracka Poljana and the Snjegavic area where out of 13 missing persons, eight were identified.

He added that the Serbian commission has completed work in the area of Nis, which was supervised by representatives of Croatia.

Odalovic proclaimed that there are 1,850 missing persons from Kosovo-Metohija, 832 of whom Serbia is looking for.

He observed that there are serious problems in the work of the working group between Belgrade and Pristina, as UNMIK, EULEX and the Kosovo institutions do not meet Serbia’s requirements in terms of progressing at a necessary pace.

Speaking about missing persons in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Odalovic clarified that Serbia has an inter-state agreement with this country.

There are 103 citizens of Serbia reported as missing in the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina, mostly soldiers who were killed or captured in Dobrovoljacka Street and during the events that followed in Sarajevo, concluded Odalovic.