The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, on Wednesday called for opening police and army archives in an attempt to facilitate efforts to shed light on the destiny of people who went missing in eastern Croatia during the war.

She published this appeal on 18 November when Croatia observes Homeland Defence Victims Rembembrance Day and Vukovar and Skabrnja Victims Remembrance Day.

Today when we remember the victims in Vukovar, my thoughts are with the families of hundreds of people who are still unaccounted-for. They deserve the truth and justice, Mijatovic said calling for more “national and regional efforts” so as to solve the remaining cases of missing people.

Currently, 386 people who went missing in the war in eastern Croatia are still unaccounted for.

The fall of Vukovar into the hands of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) and Serb paramilitaries on 18 November 1991 marked the end of a three-month siege during which over 6.5 million shells had fallen on that eastern Croatian city. During those three months, more than 3,000 Croatian soldiers and civilians, including 86 children were killed. Vukovar was peacefully reintegrated in Croatia in January 1998.