On June 22, 1998, on the way to their job, nine workers of the mine "Belacevac" of Obilic thermal power plant - Dusan, Pero and Zoran Adjancic, Mirko Buha, Dragan Vukmirovic, Filip Gojkovic, Miroslav Trifunovic, Srboljub Savic and Bozidar Lempic were kidnapped.

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.

“At a time when Orthodox Christians around the world are preparing to celebrate the day of birth of Jesus Christ, Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija are denied the right to rejoice in Christmas, to hold their ceremony/prayers and to bring in the Christmas Log,” Mayor of Mitrovica North, Goran Rakic said in a press statement, Radio Mitrovica reported.

“Every holiday in Đakovica turns into a promotion of pure hatred towards everything that is Serbian. This year is no different.