Bodies of Albanians exhumed in Batajnica handed over to UNMIK

Merdare, March 13, 2004 - Representatives UNMIK yesterday took the mortal remains of 45 ethnic-Albanians exhumed from a mass grave in Batajnica.

Head of the Serbian Office for missing and kidnapped persons Gvozden Gagic said following the handover on the administrative border between Serbia proper and Kosovo that the bodies had been exhumed from a mass grave in Batajnica and that the victims were from several different places in the province.

The bodies were sent to the town of Orahovac, where the identification procedure will be repeated. After that, the bodies will be handed over to the families.

So far, UNMIK has received 197 bodies, of a total of 836 exhumed from mass graves in Batajnica, Petrovo Selo, and Perucac.