EXHUMATIONS IN CROATIA COME UNDER SHARP CRITICISM

NEVESINJE, NOVEMBER 8 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska Minister of Labor, War Veterans' and Disabled Persons' Protection, Radan Ostojić, today criticised the Croatian authorities' treatment of Serb historical heritage, cemeteries and memorials following reports that exhumations were being carried out at certain locations in Croatia.

Ostojić said the situation was worrying, particularly given that the Croatian authorities had previously passed a law on cemeteries. “They expelled almost all the Serbs. What they failed to accomplish during the Second World War, they unfortunately succeeded during the last war,” Ostojić said. He believes that such actions also threaten the preservation of the memory of the Serb presence in those areas. The Veritas Documentation and Information Centre reported yesterday that Croatian authorities had secretly exhumed the remains of murdered Serbs from graves in Knin and Daruvar during September and October, away from public scrutiny.