Wills
of prisoners of war shall be drawn up so as to satisfy the conditions
of validity required by the legislation of their country of origin,
which will take steps to inform the Detaining Power of its requirements
in this respect. At the request of the prisoner of war and, in
all cases, after death, the will shall be transmitted without delay
to the Protecting Power; a certified copy shall be sent to the
Central Agency.
Death
certificates in the form annexed to the present Convention, or
lists certified by a responsible officer, of all persons who die
as prisoners of war shall be forwarded as rapidly as possible to
the Prisoner of War Information Bureau established in accordance
with Article 122. The death certificates or certified lists shall
show particulars of identity as set out in the third paragraph
of Article 17, and also the date and place of death, the cause
of death, the date and place of burial and all particulars necessary
to identify the graves.
The
burial or cremation of a prisoner of war shall be preceded by a
medical examination of the body with a view to confirming death
and enabling a report to be made and, where necessary, establishing
identity.
The
detaining authorities shall ensure that prisoners of war who have
died in captivity are honourably buried, if possible according
to the rites of the religion to which they belonged, and that their
graves are respected, suitably maintained and marked so as to be
found at any time. Wherever possible, deceased prisoners of war
who depended on the same Power shall be interred in the same place.
Deceased
prisoners of war shall be buried in individual graves unless unavoidable
circumstances require the use of collective graves. Bodies may
be cremated only for imperative reasons of hygiene, on account
of the religion of the deceased or in accordance with his express
wish to this effect. In case of cremation, the fact shall be stated
and the reasons given in the death certificate of the deceased.
In order
that graves may always be found, all particulars of burials and
graves shall be recorded with a Graves Registration Service established
by the Detaining Power. Lists of graves and particulars of the
prisoners of war interred in cemeteries and elsewhere shall be
transmitted to the Power on which such prisoners of war depended.
Responsibility for the care of these graves and for records of
any subsequent moves of the bodies shall rest on the Power controlling
the territory, if a Party to the present Convention. These provisions
shall also apply to the ashes, which shall be kept by the Graves
Registration Service until proper disposal thereof in accordance
with the wishes of the home country.
