PRISTINA, 16.05.2018 – The OSCE Mission in Kosovo will support efforts to find the perpetrators of the 14 murdered and missing journalists in Kosovo.
This was announced by the chief of the mission, Ambassador Jan Braathu during the discovery of a memorial plaque for two Serb reporters who went missing since 1999.
“They were doing a very important job to inform people about what really happened in the conflict zone and that’s why our insistence is to find out what’s happened,” Braathu added.
He called on the institutions to work on clearing cases against journalists during the recent war in Kosovo.
“It is very important that we continue to insist that the institutions work to find the perpetrators of these crimes. The OSCE Mission in Kosovo will insist more on this issue in the future, “he said.
The memorial plaque for the two missing journalists in 1999, Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic, was established by the Association of Serbian Journalists in Kosovo. This plate is rising for the seventh time, following consecutive damages.
“This plaque that UNS is putting on for the seventh time is evidence of how interested institutions are to work in these cases, even to find out who is destroying this plaque,” said Budimir Nicic, president of the Association of Serbian Journalists in Kosovo.
He criticized the work of the EU mission in Kosovo, EULEX, saying that this mission did nothing to shine the case of murdered journalists.
“We do not know this, but we know what our job is and we will continue to work, which is to talk, ask and ask where our colleagues are and who is responsible for the killings of our other colleagues,” said Nicic.
The murdered and missing journalists are: Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic of Radio Prishtina missing on August 21, 1998; Afrim Maliqi, murdered on 2 December 1998, Enver Maloku, killed on 11 January 1999, Ljubomir Knezevic disappeared on 6 May 1999, Milo Buljevic disappeared on 25 June 1999, Aleksandar Simovic, killed on 21 August 1999, killed Krist Gegaj on 12 September 1999, Momir Stokuca, killed on 21 September 1999, Marjan Melonasi, missing on 9 September 2000, Shefki Popova, killed on 10 September 2000, Xhemajl Mustafa, killed on 23 November 2000, Bekim Kastrati, killed on 19 October 2001, and Bardhyl Ajeti killed on 28 June 2005.