Croatia Identifies Five Exhumed Bodies of War Victims

Five people who had been missing since the 1991-95 war in Croatia were identified on Friday at the forensic department in the eastern town of Osijek.

Among those whose remains were identified was Croatian soldier Tomislav Balic, a member of Croatian Army's 204th Vukovar Brigade.

Balic died on November 18, 1991, when the eastern town of Vukovar fell to the Yugoslav People's Army and Serb paramilitaries after a three-month siege.

Three civilian victims and one Yugoslav People's Army conscript soldier, who died in the attack on Vukovar, were also identified.

The results of the identification were presented in front of relatives of the victims, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and War Veterans' Minister Tomo Medved.

Expressing his condolences, Plenkovic said that the government is working to establish precise data about the remaining wartime missing persons "so that their families can finally find out the truth about their loved ones and bury their remains".

After this latest identification, the War Veterans' Ministry said Croatia is still looking for 1,864 people who disappeared during the 1991-95 conflict.

Over 3,000 soldiers and civilians died during the siege of Vukovar and its aftermath, 86 of them children.

After the town's defence fell, thousands of non-Serbs were expelled, thousands were transported to prison camps in Serbia, and hundreds were executed at the nearby Ovcara farm and in other places.