Five Kosovo Serbs’ Remains Handed Over to Family

Five members of the Sutakovic family from the Kosovo town of Djakovica/Gjakova, whose remains were exhumed from a disused bunker in the town in 2018, were buried on Tuesday in Andrijevica in Montenegro after a ceremony at an Orthodox monastery in Berane.

Nedeljko and Darinka Sutakovic and their sons Aleksandar (aged 17), Djordje (aged 15) and Radoman (aged 10) went missing on June 15, 1999 in Djakovica/Gjakova.

Their remains were handed over to the Serbian government commission for missing persons at the Kula-Rozaje border crossing between Kosovo and Montenegro.

This was the second handover in a week, as the remains of two members of another family were also handed over on Friday to Serbian representatives for burial.

The bunker from which all the victims were exhumed is in an industrial area of Djakovica/Gjakova. Searches began when human bones were found amongst garbage after the site was cleared last year.

The exhumation of the bunker finished in May 2018 but the Serbian authorities say they suspect that more wartime graves could be nearby, and that at least 50 people could be buried there.

Over 1,600 people are still listed as missing since the war in Kosovo, mainly ethnic Albanians but also a few hundred Serbs.