Namely, on Thursday, August 21, there will be 16 years since the disappearance of Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic, the journalists of Radio Pristina.
On Thursday, the third year in a row, at the place where the journalists were kidnapped, on the road Velika Hoca – Zociste in Orahovac Municipality, the Association of Journalists of Serbia (AJS) and the Association of Journalists of Kosovo and Metohija (AJKM), will set up a monumental plaque in Serbian and Albanian language:, “Here, on August 21,1998, the journalists disappeared. We are looking for them.”
On this occasion, Branimir Stojanovic, the Mayor of the Municipality of Gracanica sent an open invitation to Idriz Vehapi, the Mayor of the Municipality of Orahovac, inviting him to attend the event on Thursday.
“Representatives of the Association of Journalists of Serbia, the management of the Municipality of Gracanica, and I personally, will attend the setting up of a commemorative plaque on that day. In order to build a common future and reconciliation among communities, I invite you to be with us on that day and thus show solidarity with all communities and compassion to the families of the missing journalists.”
We hope you will respond positively in order to protect the journalism profession and media freedom and to establish a better and more effective communication between our municipalities”, said Stojanovic in the invitation addressed to the Mayor of the Municipality of Orahovac Idriz Vehapi.
“AJC and AJKM had already set up the commemorative plaques twice, but anonymous demolished and removed it – the first time in October 2012, and the second by the end of September 2013, less than a month of its setting up.
On August 21, 1998, Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic went to the monastery “Holy Healers” (“Sveti Vraci”) in Zociste to do a report about the return of kidnapped monks. According to data of the family they were last seen in Velika Hoca, in the morning, where they mistakenly headed for Orahovac, which at that time was under the control of Kosovo Liberation Army. The car in which they were, the blue Zastava 128, has never been found.
The families Perinic and Slavuj, have no official informations about their destiny, up to date. Last years the AJC and the AJKM demanded of Kosovo institutions EULEX and UNMIK, Republic of Serbia Office of the War Crimes to initiate and resume investigations and through public campaign and through the institution of protected witnesses encourage the individuals to talk about crimes over the journalists.
After the demolition of the plaque in October two years ago, the police of Kosovo requested a photo of the mark in order to conduct an investigation, but the result are still lacking.
AJC and AJKM remind that abductions and murders of other journalists in Kosovo and Metohija have not been cleared up, said the Association of Journalists of Serbia in a press release.
Branimir Stojanovic, the Mayor of the Municipality of Gracanica sent a public invitation to Idriz Vehapi, the Mayor of the Municipality of Orahovac, to attend the event which will be organized by the Association of Journalists of Serbia and Association of Journalists of Kosovo and Metohija on Thursday, the 21st of August, near Velika Hoca.
