Office for Kosovo and Metohija: The kidnapping of the Belacevac mine workers was a prelude to mass violence against Serbian civilians

The Office for Kosovo and Metohija today issued a statement commemorating the kidnapping of miners at the Belacevac open-pit mine near Obilic, whose fate has still not been determined, stressing that the incident was a prelude to mass violence against Serbian and other non-Albanian civilians that, in a changed form, continues to this day.

"On this day in 1998, terrorists of the so-called 'Kosovo Liberation Army' kidnapped nine workers from the Belacevac open-pit mine. To this day, the fate of those abducted has not been established, prolonging the suffering of their families indefinitely. The tragic fate of these people, who worked diligently for the benefit of the entire community and set out for work that day unaware of the scale of the unprovoked hatred and evil that would make them victims, was a prelude to mass violence against Serbian and other non-Albanian civilians. That violence escalated during the armed conflict in Kosovo and Metohija and, unfortunately, continues to this day in a different form," the Office for Kosovo and Metohija said in a statement.

The statement notes that international investigative bodies failed at the time to make sufficient efforts to solve this and many other crimes committed by "terrorists in Kosovo and Metohija," while Pristina, rather than confronting this dark chapter of history, continues to build upon an ideology of hatred and construct a political system in which Serbs and everything Serbian are unwelcome.

It also points out that respected Serbs are today being arrested in Kosovo on what it describes as false charges, while the real criminals from Pristina have not only escaped accountability for their crimes but are celebrated by separatists as heroes.

"A system built on crimes cannot endure indefinitely, and until the fate of the kidnapped and missing persons is clarified, the conditions for genuine interethnic trust and the creation of a society in which human rights are an inviolable value will not exist. For Serbia, this and many other crimes committed in Kosovo and Metohija will never become time-barred, and those responsible will ultimately face justice and the punishment they deserve," the statement concludes.

The kidnapping of the Belacevac mine workers was the first in a series of mass abductions of Serbs in Kosovo.