MPs back amendments to Law on Missing Persons from the Homeland War

Croatia is still actively searching for more than 1 700 people who went missing during the Homeland War. The Veterans Affairs Ministry continues to coordinate these efforts to bring closure to families. Of the total missing, 451 are from Vukovar-Srijem County - 328 from the city of Vukovar alone.

In parliament on Thursday MPs discussed government's proposed amendments to the Law on Missing Persons from the Homeland War, which would enable the initiation of inheritance proceedings even before the missing person is officially declared dead.

According to the State Secretary at the Veterans Affairs Ministry, Darko Nakić, the amendments are minor but crucial: "The proposed amendments represent a relatively small, but for many families extremely important addition to the existing legal framework, they enable the resolution of property and legal issues with full respect for the feelings of family members who do not want to initiate the procedure of declaring their missing family members deceased."

This however, prompted HDZ MP Tomislav Zadro to ask what the current state of relations with Serbia were with regards to uncovering the final fate of those still listed as missing from the Serbian aggression of the 1990’s: "The Veterans Affairs Minister himself stated at the Veterans Committee that he personally sent eighty inquiries to Serbian institutions regarding missing persons, and that he had not received a single response. What is the level of cooperation today?"

"Missing persons are subject to Chapter 23 of Serbia's pre-accession negotiations with the EU. This is one mechanism at our disposal. We have indeed forwarded a large number of letters to Serbian institutions. Unfortunately, we have received almost no responses to our inquiries. This especially applies to the Vukovar Hospital, and records after the occupation of Vukovar," Nakić responded.

Source: HRT