340 BODIES DISCOVERED IN MASS GRAVES AROUND SERBIA THUS FAR

BELGRADE, Aug 28 (Hina) - More than 340 unidentified bodies have been exhumed from mass graves discovered all over Serbia thus far, although it is believed the figure is far higher, representatives of the Serbian Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. Excavations have been completed on one grave in Batajnica near Belgrade, with 40 bodies of unidentified persons found within, while 230 have been dug up from another grave on the same site, said Dragan Karleusa, deputy head of the crime department. He added, however, the figure was estimated to be much higher. The autopsy of bodies found in one Batajnica grave is over. The bodies are now being identified with the help of documentation and DNA analysis. Karleusa said there were still no concrete results of an investigation into those responsible for the killing of the people found in the mass graves. Since the mass graves have come up to light, several witnesses have said the bodies are of Kosovo Albanians who were killed in Kosovo and later buried on several locations around Serbia. Seventy-five bodies have been exhumed from two graves in Petrovo Selo near Kladovo in eastern Serbia. The exhumation of a grave in Perucac is yet to begin. According to available information, the bodies from Kosovo were transported on trucks and were buried even under the Belgrade-Novi Sad highway. These graves have not been found yet, there are only testimonies. Karleusa also told reporters police were intensively looking for the assassins of Momir Gavrilovic, a formerly high-ranking official of the Serbian security service, who was killed in front of his house on Aug. 3 shortly after talking with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica's associates. (hina) ha sb