The remains of five people have been found in a suspected mass grave near the Kosovo town of Gjakova/Djakovica, although their identity and cause of death has yet to be established.

The EU Rule-of-Law Mission in Kosovo, EULEX told BIRN that the remains of five bodies have been found during a search for a mass grave near Gjakova/Djakovica.

“The first exhumation was done in the end of November 2017 and three remains were found… EULEX can confirm that just now they have remains of five different persons,” a EULEX spokesperson told BIRN.

There are at least five bodies discovered over the last three weeks nearby Djakovica town, however, their number could be higher, Serbian media reported.

Chairperson of the Missing Persons Commission, Veljko Odalovic said there is reasonable doubt that these bodies belong to people listed as missing Serbs from Kosovo.

Odalovic told Politika daily that international forensics and anthropologists are working on identification of the mortal remains and it is expected identity of these people would be known soon.

In the village of Piskote near Djakovica, at least three people have been exhumed, and further investigation will determine whether there are still bodies buried in this place. According to the Vesti portal, the President of the Commission for missing of the Government of Serbia, Veljko Odalovic, also confirmed this information and said that most likely those were remains of the Serbs who were kidnapped or disappeared during 1999.

Belgrade-based daily Vecernje Novosti reported today that the mortal remains of persons most probably kidnapped in 1998 and 1999 are discovered near Djakovica town.

Remains of three persons were discovered in a location assumed to be a mass grave last week. It is believed the remains belong to the Serbs kidnapped in 1998 and 1999, daily further writes, adding excavation would continue this week.

Tarja Formisto, Deputy Director of EULEX Department of Forensic Medicine confirmed three bodies were exhumed in the mentioned location.

The Association of Families of the Kidnapped and Killed in Kosovo and Metohija through the announcement proposed to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to freeze the dialogue in Brussels and publicly request the KLA Special Criminal Court to begin its work in order to prosecute and convict the leaders of the KLA because of the command responsibility, RTS reports.

The statement says that "Brussels and KLA leaders are lying''.

Advisor to Prime Minister of Kosovo on missing persons, Jahja Lluka, met today officials from the Kosovo’s Forensic Institute and also discussed their presence in the process for determining the fate of missing persons. Director of the institute, Arsim Gerxhaliu, and EULEX forensic anthropologist, Tarja Formisto, spoke about their joint work while Lluka expressed the support of the Kosovo institutions in determining the fate of missing persons.

There are evidences of KLA crimes, false are the claims that there are no witnesses, eyewitnesses of the crimes, claim members of families of kidnapped and killed in Kosovo, reports KIM radio.

"We have footage of camps with detained Serbs and members of the KLA who managed these camps, photographs, and witnesses who were the witnesses of the kidnapping or the suffering of Serbs, Roma and Albanians, directed by members of the KLA," they told the daily Vecernje Novosti.

Kosovo prosecutor, Drita Hajdari, spoke at a Belgrade conference about Kosovo’s missing persons and noted that their fate continues to keep many families hostage. “It is a legal obligation and a fundamental human right for families to learn about the fate of their missing members. After the signing of the peace deal, warring parties should have revealed when the missing persons are but did not do so for the lack of political will and because internationals did not put enough pressure on them,” Hajdari said.

Discovering the fate of the missing persons is an issue to which Serbia attaches great importance.

This is according to a statement of the Foreign Ministry, published after a meeting in Belgrade on Tuesday between First Deputy PM and Foreign Ivica Dacic and Director-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross Yves Daccord.

Daccord is visiting Serbia and the region from October 16 until 19, the government said.

KIM radio and portal KoSSev reported that in the village of Suvi Do/Suhodoll in North Mitrovica started yesterday the search of the remains of missing persons during the Kosovo conflict.

The media reported that so far excavations have been carried out three times in that location and that the remains of 105 bodies have been found, which have been identified and handed over to their relatives.