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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Shedding light on kidnappings, murders of journalists in Kosovo and Metohija

Belgrade, 21 August 2023

The Office for Kosovo and Metohija reminded that today marks the 25th anniversary of the kidnapping of Radio Pristina journalists Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic, on the Orahovac-Velika Hoca road, while they were on an assignment reporting on the kidnapped monks from the monastery of Sveti Vraci in Zociste.

The announcement states that their kidnappers have not been identified and punished to this day, and the families of the kidnapped journalists, colleagues and the entire public have been waiting for truth and justice for 25 years, which represents another stain on the face of those who are supposed to take care of justice and the rule of law in the province.

Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic were kidnapped because they were doing their job, but above all because they are Serbs, and their kidnapping was supposed to show the remaining Serbs in Orahovac, but also throughout Kosovo and Metohija, what fate awaits the Serb people in the province.

Today is an opportunity to remind that other kidnappings and murders of journalists in Kosovo and Metohija have not been solved either – Ljubomir Knezevic, a journalist of Pristina "Jedinstvo" and a correspondent for "Politika", was kidnapped on 6 May 1999 near Vucitrn, while Aleksandar Simovic, a journalist and translator, disappeared on 21 August 1999 in Pristina.

Marjan Melonasi, a journalist from the Serbian newsroom of Radio Kosovo, disappeared on 9 September 2000 in Pristina, Momir Stokuca, a photojournalist, was killed on 21 September 1999 in his family home in the centre of Pristina, while Mile Buljevic, a security guard in TV Pristina, was kidnapped in June 1999 in front of the Refugee Centre in Pristina.