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FOURTH GENEVA CONVENTION OF 1949
ensure the transport of the internees’ community property and of the
luggage the internees are unable to take with them in consequence of
restrictions imposed by virtue of the second paragraph.
CHAPTER XI
Deaths
Wills. Death
certificates
ART. 129. — The wills of internees shall be received for
safekeeping by the responsible authorities; and in the event of the
death of an internee his will shall be transmitted without delay to a
person whom he has previously designated.
Deaths of internees shall be certified in every case by a doctor,
and a death certificate shall be made out, showing the causes of
death and the conditions under which it occurred.
An official record of the death, duly registered, shall be drawn up
in accordance with the procedure relating thereto in force in the
territory where the place of internment is situated, and a duly
certified copy of such record shall be transmitted without delay to
the Protecting Power as well as to the Central Agency referred to in
Article 140.
Burial.
Cremation
ART. 130. — The detaining authorities shall ensure that internees
who die while interned are honourably buried, if possible according
to the rites of the religion to which they belonged and that their
graves are respected, properly maintained, and marked in such a
way that they can always be recognized.
Deceased internees 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
expressed wish to this effect. In case of cremation, the fact shall be
stated and the reasons given in the death certificate of the deceased.
The ashes shall be retained for safekeeping by the detaining
authorities and shall be transferred as soon as possible to the next of
kin on their request.
As soon as circumstances permit, and not later than the close of
hostilities, the Detaining Power shall forward lists of graves of
deceased internees to the Powers on whom the deceased internees
depended, through the Information Bureaux provided for in
Article 136. Such lists shall include all particulars necessary for the