On June 22, 1998, ten miners were kidnapped from the Belaćevac coal mine of the Obilić Thermal Power Plant in Kosovo and Metohija. According to the Association of Kidnapped and Murdered Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, this was the first organized abduction of Serbian civilians by the criminal KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army)—a full year before the outbreak of armed conflict.
On that day, June 22, 1998, while on their way to work, the following individuals were abducted: Žarko Spasić, brothers Petar and Zoran Ađančić, along with their father Dušan, Filip Gojković, Miroslav Trifunović, Srboljub Savić, Mirko Buha, Božidar Lempić, and Dragan Vukmirović.
Members of the organization—which at the time was even designated as terrorist by the United States—used a truck to block the miners’ access to the coal pit and then took them in the direction of the Ćićevica mountain.
"The Albanian miners were not touched, while the kidnapped Serbs were held in the Likovac and Lapušnik camps, which were under the command of Fatmir Limaj," stated the Association of Kidnapped and Murdered Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. They emphasized that none of the abducted miners have ever been found, nor has anyone been held accountable for their kidnapping in over a quarter of a century.
Today, members of the Association of Families of Kidnapped and Missing Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija marked 26 years since the mass abduction of the ten Serbian miners in a memorial event held in Kosovska Mitrovica.
"Many years have passed—26 years—and we still know nothing about them. That is extremely sad and difficult for the families, but also for our entire society," said Negovan Mavrić, coordinator of the Association of Kidnapped and Missing Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. He added:
"This is why we demand that all bodies and potential mass or individual graves be investigated, the remains exhumed, and returned to their families."
Mavrić also noted that a total of 27 Serbian workers of Elektroprivreda Srbije were kidnapped and 57 were killed in Kosovo and Metohija.
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