Representatives of EULEX and the Serbian government’s commission on missing persons have exchanged the remains of three Serbs and 12 ethnic Albanians, Veljko Odalovic, chairman of the Serbian commission, said on Tuesday.
The exchange of the remains was done at the Merdare administrative crossing between central Serbia and the province of Kosovo-Metohija on Monday, and Odalovic underscored that this was the first time that the victims of the 1999 conflict in Kosovo-Metohija were at the same time given and taken.
We gave EULEX the remains of 12 ethnic Albanians, which were found at the Rudnica location in the area of Raska this summer, Odalovic told the Belgrade-based daily Politika.
He noted that the Serbian side got the bodies of three Serbs that were abducted and killed in Kosovo-Metohija after June 10, 1999, during the UN interim administration and the mandate of the international forces of KFOR.
Odalovic said that the Serbian authorities received the body of Zoran Spalevic, 61, whose remains were found in Kosovska Mitrovica, Branko Medenica, 72, whose remains were found in Pec, and Rajko Milenkovic, 60, whose body was incorrectly identified and buried at the Dragodan cemetery in Pristina.
All the three were civilians, and they were reported missing as soon as they were abducted, but it took 15 years to find them and do a precise identification, Odalovic said.
He noted that the incorrect identifications happened when the Hague Tribunal’s teams were searching for evidence, and over 2,000 remains of victims were identified by using a classic method.
Now, the identities of the Serb and ethnic Albanian victims were ascertained through a DNA analysis, the chairman of the Serbian commission on missing persons explained.
