A mass grave found several days ago, near the town of Petrinja, Croatia, was made public on Thursday.
Forensic experts have dug out the remains of eight people so far from the mass grave located near the town of Petrinja's city rubbish dump.
The war veterans deputy minister Ivan Grujic explained that "based on the recovered clothing, it seems that victims were civilians from Petrinja killed in 1991". It is assumed that the victims were Croats.
He added that there were "indications but no firm evidence" of more graves nearby.
Asked if there was cooperation from Serb returnees in the search for mass graves, Grujic answered positively. "Of course we have that kind of cooperation. Croatian state bodies collect information from all sources. Cooperation with the people who were there at the time these events took place has been one of them", confirmed Grujic.
He appealed to all who have any kind of information about mass graves in Croatia to share it with the responsible bodies, "for the sake of the victims and their families".
In autumn 1991, the Petrinja area was captured by Croatian Serb forces and the Yugoslav National Army, which expelled the Croats from their homes, killing many of them. Until today, 45 mass graves had been found in the area. In August 1995, the Croatian army retook the territory in operation Storm, and most of the Serbs fled the territory.
Grujic confirmed that "Croatia is searching for missing persons, regardless of their nationality, religion or any other affiliation".
The Croatian war veterans minister Predrag Matic, speaking to journalists at the public exhumation, said that there are still 1,768 people missing from the war in Croatia between 1991 and 1995.
"We won't stop until we have found the last missing person in Croatia", Matic added.
Out of a total number of missing from the war in Croatia, 984 disappeared in the second half of 1991 and first half of 1992, when Serb forces were expelling Croatians from their homes. Most of those missing are of Croatian nationality.
From the period May to August 1995, when the Croatian army retook Serb-controlled territories, 784 persons, mostly Serbs, remain missing.
For years Croatia didn't recognize those people as equal victims, but that has changed in recent years under international pressure.
Grujic confirmed that the mass grave found in Petrinja is the 145th mass grave to be found in Croatia since the end of the war of independence in 1995.
4,683 people have been exhumed from both individual and mass graves, of which 3,262 people have been identified.