TALLINN - As politicians grapple with the diplomatic and social fallout from April's riots, forensic work continues to discover the identity of bodies of World War II soldiers buried in the grave at Tonismagi, the former site of the Bronze Soldier monument. Twelve caskets complete with remains have been excavated from the site, the Ministry of Defense announced at a May 2 press conference.
"Skeletal remains were found in all 12 caskets, and they are all in good condition," said Ullar Lanno, Director of the Bureau of Forensic Medicine of Estonia at the conference. He added that no documents were found during the excavations, but that the caskets and the respective remains were well preserved.
"The 12 caskets were found buried in two rows at the side of Kaarli Church that faces towards Freedom Square," he said.
In a statement on May 7, Estonia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs mentioned that the positions of the remains and grave markers correspond to the burial positions shown in photographs dating to the original interment.
"Therefore, we can confidently assume that the recently exhumed remains found at Tonismagi belong to the twelve individuals buried there in 1945," the statement concludes.
The remains were taken to the autopsy facility of the Bureau of Forensic Medicine of Estonia for DNA sampling. The hope is that it will be possible to compare those samples with those of possible relatives and thereby positively identify the bodies.
The MOD Director of the Public Affairs Department Madis Mikko said that should the individuals who have been buried in this war grave be positively identified, the Republic of Estonia will inform the Russian Federation.
On May 7 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a note to Russian ambassador Nikolai Uspenski informing him that the remains found at Tonsimagi most probably belong to Soviet soldiers.
The Red Cross is forwarding information requests to all the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States in hopes that relatives will come forward for testing.
For its part, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is calling for Russia's participation in the process, despite the icy relations between the countries.
"Estonia is seeking Russia's aid in providing the DNA profile of two close relatives for each of the exhumed individuals. Estonia will reimburse the expenses of collating and analyzing these DNA profiles," a ministry statement said.
The reburial ceremony for the 12 is scheduled to take place in late June at the Garrison Cemetery in Tallinn, where the Bronze Soldier has also been relocated.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that, in preparation for the ceremony, it has requested the Russian Embassy to inform the Estonian authorities by the June whether close relatives of the deceased would like to participate. "The travel expenses of two close relatives of each of the deceased will be covered by the Estonian nation," it said.
Not everyone is eager to trust their relatives' remains to Estonia however.
The Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported on May 5 that the daughters of Ivan Syssoyev, a Red Army captain believed to be among the soldiers buried at Tonismagi in 1944, would like to bring the remains of their father back to Russia from Estonia. The daughters reportedly said this was necessary because of the possibility that in Estonia the final resting place may not be left in peace.
