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.

PRIŠTINA, BELGRADE -- The search of a location in the Piskote village near Đakovica has been concluded with no result, a Priština official has said.

It was suspected that the location contained a mass grave with the remains of Serb civilians kidnapped in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999 by members of the ethnic Albanian KLA, and illegally imprisoned in the Likovac camp before they were murdered.

A total of 73 Serb civilians went missing in the area of Đakovica during the that period of time.

BELGRADE - No remains were found at the first searched location in the village of Piskota near Djakovica, southwestern Kosovo-Metohija, which is believed to contain bodies of 20 Serb civilians killed in the prison camp of Likovac, Serbia's War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic told Tanjug on Wednesday.

For now, by the first order of EULEX, 30 meters have been dug over and searched at the location that is the size of a stadium, but the search will continue, Vukcevic said, noting that the remains of (Albanian) victims were found in Rudnica near Raska in the seventh attempt.

EULEX experts and staff of the Department of Forensic Medicine in Kosovo yesterday went to the field in the village Piskota, near Djakovica, to verify the information on suspicion of existence of a mass grave of Serbian civilians at the site, received from the War Crimes Prosecution of Serbia.

EULEX Spokeswoman, Dragana Nikolic Solomon, in an interview with Radio Free Europe (RFE) was unable to give a comment as the investigation is on-going. 

President of the Association of Djakovica/Gjakova citizens, Đokica Stanojevic, asked whether the international community will be able to provide the displaced Serbs the right to return and live in Djakovica/Gjakova. He noted that citizens were seized all rights and that they were forbidden to visit their houses, cemeteries and shrines.

An association gathering families of Serb victims in Kosovo said it hoped that an investigation of a suspected mass grave will yield "concrete results."

 The Association of the Families of 1998-2000 Kosovo Victims warned at the same time that last year only nine people were identified from a long list of kidnapped Serbs, and this year none.

They hope that the probe announced on Monday by the Serbian War Crimes Prosecution and the EULEX Prosecution of a site in the village of Piskote "will give concrete results."

Although it was said in August when 16 mortal remains were handed over that another 24 will be returned early this month, only 22 mortal remains are expected to be handed over today at the border crossing point in Merdare.

Prenk Gjetaj from the Kosovo Government commission on missing persons confirmed the news. “As it stands, there are 22 mortal remains, two are questionable as there will be a lot of bones to be reattached to mortal remains returned in August”, said Gjetaj.

Kosovo Government Commission in a consultation meeting held today discussed about the possible date for repatriation of mortal remains of persons identified and exhumed from Rudnica, municipality of Rashka.

Repatriation of mortal remains identified through DNA analysis planned for the end of this week, will be postponed for 12 September. The repatriation of identified mortal remains will be made through EULEX

NEW YORK - On the International Day of the Disappeared, August 30, Amnesty International urges authorities in Serbia and Kosovo to carry out prompt, independent, effective and impartial investigations against those suspected of enforced disappearances and abductions committed before, during and after the international armed conflict in Kosovo in 1999.

U.S.-based international human rights organisation Amnesty International said in its report that 15 years after the end of the armed conflict, around 1,700 people are still missing.