Serbia hands over 44 bodies of ethnic-Albanians to UNMIK

Merdare, Dec 5, 2003 - Representatives of the Serbian Coordinating Centre for Kosovo-Metohija handed over to UNMIK yesterday the mortal remains of 44 ethnic-Albanians exhumed from a mass grave in Batajnica, near Belgrade.

Head of the Coordinating Centre's office for missing and kidnapped persons Gvozden Gagic said following the handover in Merdare, on the administrative border between Serbia proper and Kosovo, that the identification of the mortal remains was conducted at Belgrade's Forensic Institute, with the participation of UNMIK experts.

The bodies of 44 ethnic-Albanians were transferred to the town of Orahovac, where the identification procedure will be repeated. After that, the bodies will be handed over to the families.

The handover was attended by around 100 relatives of missing Kosovo Albanians as well as representatives from the Coordinating Centre and UNMIK.

So far, the Coordinating Centre has handed over to UNMIK a total of 194 bodies exhumed, with another 630 still undergoing the identification process.