India rejects Albanian demand

For Mother Teresa remains:

INDIA: India flatly rejected Tuesday a demand by the Albanian government for the return of the remains of Nobel laureate Mother Teresa, buried in the eastern city of Kolkata.

“Mother Teresa was an Indian citizen and she is resting in her own country, her own land,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said.

The ethnic Albanian nun, who was known as the “Saint of the Gutters” for her work among the poor of Kolkata, was given Indian citizenship in 1951.

“The question (of her remains being taken back to Albania) does not arise at all,” Prakash said.

Following her death on September 5, 1997, Mother Teresa was buried at the Kolkata headquarters of her Missionaries of Charity order, which has now become something of a pilgrimage site.

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha called on the Indian government to discuss his country’s request. AFP