Five people from the Šarviz Dol mass grave identified

Five more remains of civilians and soldiers, exhumed from a mass grave near Svinjarevci in the Vukovar area, were identified on Friday at the National Memorial Hospital Dr. Juraj Njavro in Vukovar, and the Minister of Croatian Veterans, Tomo Medved, was also present.

The remains of at least 11 people were exhumed from that mass grave of victims of the Greater Serbian aggression in 1991, which is located in a locality known as Šarviz Dola, four of whom were identified in April, and with today's identification, the families accepted the DNA findings for five more people who disappeared in the Homeland war, journalists were told.

Today, two civilians from Vukovar and three Croatian soldiers from Berk were identified

All persons were forcibly taken during September and October 1991 from the area of Vukovar and Berk, they are male and between the ages of 25 and 60, and among those identified today are two civilians from Vukovar and three Croatian soldiers from Berk.

“And this identification today is the result of the efforts of everyone involved in this extremely demanding and complex process, which is a priority for us. This is also an indicator of our full dedication to finding all persons missing in the Homeland War,” said Deputy Prime Minister Minister Tomo Medved.

"Dear families, although our achievements are far from what we all want together, which is to find out the truth about the fate of all our missing, I believe you recognize the efforts we invest in this extremely sensitive and complex process," he added.

Minister Medved thanked the families of the missing for their patience, but also everyone else involved in the search for missing persons from the Homeland War, which is a priority humanitarian issue.

In seven years, three mass graves and a number of individual graves were found, 173 people were exhumed

In that period, a total of 253 persons, Croatian soldiers and civilians, were identified.

In the area of Vukovar-Srijem County, 126 locations were searched, and the remains of 39 people were found and exhumed.

In addition to Šarviz Dola, where field investigations are still being carried out, a suspicious area on Petrovački Dol has been searched for a long time in the area of Vukovar, and frequent field searches are also carried out in the area of Banovina.

After today's identification, the Republic of Croatia, through the Ministry of Croatian Veterans, is searching for 1,807 missing and dead persons during the Homeland War, with the largest share being persons from Vukovar-Srijem County, 504 of them, of which 376 are missing and dead in the area of Vukovar and suburban settlements.

In Vukovar, Minister Tomo Medved joined the members of the Vukovar Mothers Association of Parents and Families of Captured and Forcefully Taken Croatian Defenders at the commemoration of 30 years of unity, work and action in the search for their loved ones.

On this occasion, he also laid a wreath at the Vukovar Memorial Cemetery for the victims of the Homeland War.

Source: HRT