NEW DELHI -- India flatly rejected Tuesday the Albanian government's demand 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.
Following her death on Sept. 5, 1997, Mother Teresa was buried at the Kolkata headquarters of her Missionaries of Charity order, which has become something of a pilgrimage site.
Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha called on the Indian government to discuss his country's request.
"I think she will be more calm than anywhere else if she could rest next to her mother" and sister, buried in Tirana, Berisha told AFP on Tuesday.
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