(6 Mar 1996) Eng/Serbo-Croat/Nat
Croat, Serb and Hungarian families who've been separated for almost five years have been re-united in Eastern Slavonia.
About 50 families met in a U-N administered area near the Sarvas/Nemetin crossing point.
People from Osijek, which is under Croatian authority, met relatives who live in Slavonian villages under Serbian control.
These people have been waiting for this moment for years.
After negotiating Croatian checkpoints, women and men from Osijek greeted the relatives who war had kept them from seeing.
They talked, cried, wept away their tears and relived their past while looking at family photographs.
This is the eighth such meeting organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The United Nations as well as other international organisations are very happy that we have managed to arrange those family reunions here at Sarvas/Nemetin crossing point. Right now about 1,200 people have been able to meet each other, people who have not met for four to five years. We are very glad that we have full cooperation from both sides and we are planning to continue with the family reunions next week."
SUPER CAPTION: Goeran Stigmer, United Nations
During the reunion, the Croatian Red Cross from Osijek and the Serbian Red Cross from Vukovar met.
SOUNDBITE: (In Serbian)
"You have seen tears that Red Cross people from both sides are trying to wipe. These people are not guilty and we are trying to diminish their suffering and tensions."
SUPER CAPTION: Milovan Licina, Serbian Red Cross Official
The Croatian Red Cross said they were trying to spread the truth about what had happened during the war.
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