UN to hand over bodies of 29 Serbs killed in Kosovo

UN authorities in Kosovo will today hand over to families the bodies of 29 Serb civilians killed during the 1998-99 conflict in the volatile province.

Most of the victims are believed to have been from the western Kosovo towns of Orahovac and Opterusa, said UN spokesman Neeraj Singh. Previously, they all had been reported as missing.

Singh said a delegation of family members and Serbia’s officials was to receive the bodies at Merdare boundary crossing, some 25 miles north of Kosovo’s capital, Pristina.

More than 2,000 people are still missing from the Kosovo conflict in what remains one of the most sensitive and emotionally-charged issues between the two former foes.

Kosovo, legally part of Serbia, has been under UN administration since mid-1999, when Nato’s air war halted Serb forces’ crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.