Journalists of Serbia Seek Justice for Colleagues Kidnapped and Killed in Kosovo

Last year in August, The Association of Journalists of Serbia staged peaceful protests in front of EULEX headquarters in Pristina.In a meeting with EULEX Chief Yves de Kermabon, they requested investigations to be ordered regarding the journalists kidnapped and killed in Kosovo and Metohija province, in the period from the beginning of 1998 to the end of 2000.
Members of the Association of Journalists of Serbia, who were carrying photos of their killed and kidnapped colleagues, displayed a large banner reading “Give us Our Colleagues Back,” in Serbian and Albanian. They were joined by the family members of Serbia’s journalists who were kidnapped by the KLA during and after Albanian war against Serbia.

Regarding Serbian journalists who were kidnapped by the Albanian terrorists (KLA), Smajlovic (The Association President) reminded that the remains of one missing reporter, Aleksandar Simovic, were found in 2001, two years after the kidnapping, but his killers, as well as those who killed photoreporter Momir Stokuca in 1999, have still not been identified.

According to the Association’s data, two members of the Radio Pristina crew, Slavko Perenic and Djuro Slavuj were kidnapped in 1998; Ljubomir Knezevic, reporter of Pristina Unity and associate of Belgrade daily Politika was kidnapped in 1999, while Marjan Melonasi, journalist of the Serbian media outlet Kosovo Radio was kidnapped in the year 2000. Their fate remains unknown to this day and they are still listed as missing.


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Today, one year after, protest has been staged close to Orahovac , place where TV crew was abducted.

 

CPJ Committee to Protect Journalists​

Defending Journalists Worldwide

Special Reports
Journalists Missing

Djuro Slavuj, Radio Pristina, August 21, 1998, Orahovac

Slavuj, a reporter at the state-run Radio Pristina, and Ranko Perenic, his driver, disappeared while on assignment in Kosovo. They were last seen in the town of Orahovac, where they had left by car to travel to Malisevo to report on strife in the area. Milivoje Mihajlovic, Slavuj's editor, as well as Serbian officials and nongovernmental organizations, believe that fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army captured the two. They were the first ethnic Serbs working for the media reported missing during the Kosovo conflict of 1999.

http://www.cpj.org/reports/2008/02/journalists-missing.php#more

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/category,COI,CPJ,THEMREPORT,COD,4b29fd4d2,0.html

 

My sincere condolences to their families.