The Association of Journalists of Serbia and the Society of Journalists of Kosovo and Metohija today, near Orahovac, set up a commemorative plaque to reporters Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic who disappeared on that day 16 years ago.
At the place, where according to the testimony of the family they were last seen, when they were mistakenly turned the wrong way to Zociste, where they were supposed to film a story about the kidnapped monks, the representatives of the Association of Journalists of Serbia set up a memorial plaque on which in Serbian and Albanian language writes: "Here, the journalists Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perinic disappeared. We are looking for them."
Mayor of the Municipality of Gracanica Branimir Stojanovic, president of the Assembly of Gracanica Vladeta Kostic, Deputy Mayor Nebojsa Milovanovic and Chief of the Kosovo administrative district Srdjan Petkovic attended the event of setting up the memorial plaque in order to show solidarity and call those responsible to seriously deal with the fate of the missing journalists and all the kidnapped and missing in Kosovo.
Addressing to the numerous media, Stojanovic said that it was the duty of all to fight for truth and justice, and thus, he had invited in written form the mayor of Orahovac Municipality Idriz Vehapi to attend the event but he had not respond to the invitation.
Stojanovic said: "What we have to do as the representatives of the Serbs is to be more coherent with all those who are fighting for the truth. Journalists and politicians sometimes don’t have the same opinion, but as people who are struggling to subsist here, I believe we are fighting for the same thing, and that is the truth and justice. What I have tried to do together with my colleagues, was to call those at the local level who should concern about the Serbs but also about the truth and justice, to be today with us. We hadn’t received any response but one of our man who work in local self-government, and who came here today. I expect this will change in the future. As long as the Albanians do not realize and face with a different truth from the one they have so far talked about, neither these people nor all the others we are looking for will not be found. Therefore, let them consider well. As well as the Albanians are looking for their missing, and we will not be an obstacle to find them, but we’ll support any initiative, thus we are asking our missing to be found. While not being solved, everything else will be inferior."
Nino Brajovic, Secretary General of the Association of Journalists of Serbia (AJS), said that those who destroyed the plaque, the third year in a row, will not thus dispel bad conscience about what they had done or what they knew about the missing journalists and they didn’t report.
Brajović said: "A message for them: You’ll not make it! We message to the police and the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor of Kosovo, EULEX, future tribunal for war crimes in Kosovo that we will not leave them alone. It is a message for them. Message to those from the international community who, from comfortable rooms, watch all this silently and don’t do what they can and what they have to; we will not forget. We know that journalists are doing a job that is tough and fighting against injustice and evil. Journalists sooner or later always fight out the evil and injustice. Let’s message at the end: Let’s fight out this evil and injustice."
Budimir Nicic, President of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo and Metohija, said that journalists didn’t expect any mercy, but solidarity in the seeking of the truth about missing colleagues.
Nicic said: "If we are the fourth estate, and we haven’t managed to find our colleagues so far, I do not know how we will affect the public and the authorities to detect criminals, name and punish them. We, as people and as journalists and members of the oldest professional associations in the Balkans, are obliged to take care of our people as we care about the truth", and added that all international and domestic factors are responsible for the unknown fate of the missing journalists.
On 30 August 2012, at the place where their colleagues were kidnapped, the representatives of AJS and SJKM set up a commemorative plaque on Serbian and Albanian language that writes: "Here, on 21 August 1998, the journalist disappeared. We are looking for them." The plaque was destroyed after two months, and the same was set up on August 21 last year, but soon it was destroyed and disappeared.
In August 1998, Slavuj and Perenic went to the monastery of the Holy Healers in Zociste in order to do a report about the return of kidnapped monks. According to families’ data, they were last seen in Velika Hoca, in the morning, where they mistakenly went to Orahovac, which at that time was under the control of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The car in which they were, blue Zastava 128, has never been found. The families still do not have any official information about their fate.
The Association of Journalists of Serbia reminds that the other abductions and murders of journalists in Kosovo and Metohija have not been clarified.
The Municipality of Gracanica helped the arrival of journalists from Belgrade to the place where memorial plaque of missing journalists should be set up.
Besides journalists from Kosovo and central Serbia and the representatives of the Municipality of Gracanica, the setting up of memorial plaques was also attended by the Serbs from surrounding Metohija villages among whom was Vinka Radosavljevic, the head of Pec district.
Authority of Gracanica Municipality led by the mayor Branimir Stojanovic attended near Orahovac the event of setting up the memorial plaque in tribute to missing journalists of Radio Pristina. The event was organized by the Association of Journalists of Serbia.
