28 YEARS SINCE SERBIAN JOURNALISTS SLAVUJ AND PERENIĆ DISAPPEARED

BELGRADE, AUGUST 20 /SRNA/ - Thursday marks 28 years since the abduction of Radio Priština journalists Đuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenić, who disappeared on the road between Velika Hoča and Zočište in the Orahovac area of Kosovo and Metohija.

Their case, along with other cases involving the disappearance and killing of media workers in Kosovo and Metohija between 1999 and 2005, remains unresolved. Slavuj and Perenić set out on August 21, 1998, for the Monastery of the Holy Healers in Zočište to prepare a report on the return of abducted monks. They were seen in Velika Hoča. Several kilometers later, they took a wrong turn that led them to members of the Kosovo Liberation Army /KLA/, and all trace of them was lost from that point. Their families have never received official information about their fate. The investigation into missing and killed persons was initially conducted by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo /UNMIK/ and later by the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo /EULEX/. EULEX confirmed that Slavuj and Perenić had been abducted by KLA members. Responsibility for investigating the case, along with other such crimes, now lies with institutions in Priština. At its annual assembly in May 2024, the European Federation of Journalists unanimously adopted a resolution on journalists killed or missing in Kosovo and Metohija between 1998 and 2005. The resolution was proposed by the Association of Journalists of Serbia /UNS/. The resolution called on the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, based in The Hague, to open investigations into the killings and disappearances of journalists and media workers. It also called on the United Nations to implement the findings of the UN Human Rights Advisory Panel, which identified violations of the European Convention on Human Rights in UNMIK's work and highlighted the need for compensation for the victims' families. The resolution further called on the Council of the European Union to determine whether EULEX had violated the European Convention on Human Rights. The European Federation of Journalists' Executive Committee was urged, in cooperation with other organizations, journalists' associations, the Council of Europe, the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe /OSCE/ and other international bodies, to regularly monitor investigations into the killings, abductions and disappearances and report on their progress. Many other journalists were abducted in Kosovo and Metohija during the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and official information about their disappearances remains unavailable to the public. Journalist and interpreter Aleksandar Simović disappeared in Priština on August 21, 1999. Some of his remains were later found in the village of Obrinje near Glogovac. Politika correspondent and Jedinstvo journalist Ljubomir Knežević was abducted on May 6, 1999, near Vučitrn, at the foot of the Čičavica mountain. Photojournalist Momir Stokuća was killed on September 21, 1999, in the house where he lived in central Priština. Marjan Melonaši, a journalist with the Serbian-language service of Radio Kosovo, disappeared in Priština on September 9, 2000. Krist Gegaj, editor of Radio Television Priština, was killed in Istok in September 1999, three months after the arrival of international forces. Between 1999 and 2005, journalists Afrim Malići, Enver Maljoku, Džemailj Mustafa, Bekim Kastrati and Bardhyl Ajeti were also killed in Kosovo and Metohija. At the site where Slavuj and Perenić were abducted, the Association of Journalists of Serbia and the Association of Journalists of Kosovo and Metohija erected a memorial plaque bearing the inscription in Serbian and Albanian: "Here, on August 21, 1998, journalists disappeared. We are looking for them." The plaque has been vandalized and destroyed nine times so far. It was most recently torn down at the end of July this year. UNS has announced that, together with its branch in Kosovo and Metohija, it will restore the memorial for the tenth time.