Agreement reached on transfer of Serb bodies exhumed from Volujak mass grave

Radio Television Serbia, Belgrade, Monday, October 2, 2006 19:20

The transfer of 23 bodies of Serbs exhumed from the mass grave of Volujak in Kosovo and Metohija will take place on October 13 at the administrative crossing of Merdare, Veljko Odalovic, the chairman of the Commission for Missing Persons, confirmed.

Odalovic emphasized that these were Serbs from the villages of Opterusa, Retimlje and Orahovac who were first kidnapped and then murdered by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army in summer 1998.

"On Friday, October 6, the Commission for Missing Persons will meet to work out in detail all activities connected with the transfer of the human remains of the victims," said Odalovic. He said that the burial and commemoration of the victims is planned for October 14 at the Orlovac Cemetery in Belgrade.

So far 380 exhumations have been carried out in Kosovo in the presence of Serbian pathologists. The Serbian side has received 183 bodies and 60 more are in the process of being identified out of a total of 800 missing persons on the Commission's list.

On the territory of central Serbia about 800 Albanian bodies have been exhumed so far and all have been turned over to the Albanian side, 750 of them identified and 50 in the process of being identified.