Administration of Matveev-Kurgan District, Rostov Region, refuses to bury soldiers who perished in Great Patriotic War

The authorities of the Matveev-Kurgan District of the Rostov Region has rejected the initiative of the Search Association "Mius-Front" to rebury the remains of more than ten soldiers who perished in the battles for liberation of the Rostov Region.

The reburial was to be held in the city of Matveev-Kurgan on August 30; however, at the last moment the district administration banned the search activists to conduct the funeral on the grounds of improperly drawn up documents.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that remains of 36 soldiers of the Great Patriotic War were detected in the course of the work of search clubs. Their activists managed to find a few names of the casualties; and media reported about the solemn ceremony of reburial held at the district centre. However, the reports proved to be a premature preview.

Andrei Kudryakov, the commander of the Association "Mius-Front", has accused the military commissioner and the administration of the Matveev-Kurgan District of desecrating the remains of the Red Army soldiers who perished during the Great Patriotic War.

Andrei Kudryakov has explained: "We brought the remains to the military commissariat of the Matveev-Kurgan District, and in the presence of the district administration was put them into a coffin. The representative then confirmed that the burial would take place on the following day. However, on the appointed day of the ceremony, the coffin with the remains of the defenders of the Rostov Region was literally thrown out of the district military commissariat. All these actions were carried out in the eyes of gathered children, pupils and students."

According to Mr Kudryakov, the administration bureaucrats suggested the searchers "to take these bones back to the place where you dug them out."

Gennady Naumenko, the press secretary of the administration of the Matveev-Kurgan District, said at a press conference said that the main reason why the officials refused to rebury the remains was in the absence of the necessary documents at the disposal of the "Mius-Front". Besides, the burial issues are under the military commissariat and the administration of the settlement, not of the district.

Besides, Mr Naumenko quoted the letter of April 15 addressed by the FSB to the head of the district, which, in particular, stated that "...in most cases, the primary motivation in organizing excavation is the material interest, stimulated by the increased commercial interest to war rarities."

However, the search activists forced Naumenko to read another abstract from the letter, which listed the organizations causing no doubt with the FSB. The "Mius-Front" was the first on the list, the "Rostov News Agency" reports.

In his turn, Andrei Kudryakov has stated that all the documents were in proper order; and they had failed to sign them before the burial only because the district military commissar or his representative were absent at their workplace.

The incident caused a great resonance in the blogosphere. Blogger olenalex, who told this story in his blog on the Livejournal, was asked by Major-General Alexander Kirilin, the head of the department of the Russian Ministry of Defence Ministry for commemorating the memory of those who perished while defending their homeland, to send all the documents and materials pertaining to this incident to the Ministry of Defence.