Serbs Return Bodies of 40 Slain Villagers

Serbs relented and returned the bodies of 40 Kosovo Albanian villagers to their families Wednesday, nearly a month after their killings spurred the peace talks now underway outside Paris.

Their return clears the way for a mass funeral as early as today near the hillside where the mutilated bodies were found. The Jan. 16 killing touched off an international uproar and allegations of a Serbian police massacre.

Women and girls collapsed in each other’s arms, wailing, as men carried 40 coffins through the blue courtyard gate of the mosque in Racak, 25 miles south of Kosovo’s provincial capital, Pristina.

Serbian authorities had held the bodies for two weeks after autopsies were completed, saying Kosovo Albanians wanted to make a “spectacle” of their funeral.