• Specialists look for babies

BELGRADE - The inquiry committee, formed in order to establish the truth about newborn babies that disappeared from maternity hospitals in towns in Serbia, suggested that the Minister of Interior should form a specialized unit which would investigate all the cases related to missing babies.

This unit is supposed to consist of specialists who deal with blood delicts, organized crime and people trafficking and who would report directly to the Minister who would then notify the Safety committee about the information the police had required.

Reasons The inquiry committee, constituted on May 23, 2005, determined that parents had many difficulties in obtaining medical documentation from maternity hospitals, that there was no similarity between clinical diagnosis in death statement and final diagnosis after autopsy, which justifies parents' doubts. Parents were not allowed to take bodies of their deceased babies nor they could find information about where they were buried since the lead between medical institution and funeral company is lost in many cases.

It was also suggested that all accusations should be carried out by special prosecutor and special court for fight against organized crime and that certain laws should be changed in order to remove regulations about obsoleteness of some cases and enable process of all criminal accusations.

It was asked to precisely define procedures in cases of newborn babies' death at maternity hospitals which would imply obligatory identification from parents and specialists, autopsy and taking tissue samples for DNA analyses.

That would also cover precisely defined procedure of taking babies body from medical institution to funeral company. The inquiry committee has also suggested that the Law of DNA register should be established and that Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self Government should start an inspection service which would regularly control the work of birth services.

Tanjug