Petkovic on Von Cramon's statement: It is the first time that a high-ranking EU official is dealing with the topic of murdered journalists in Kosovo

Journalist and member of the Association of Journalists of Serbia, Jelena Petkovic, who was involved in research into the case of missing journalists in Kosovo, says that with yesterday's statement, Viola von Cramon became the first high-ranking EU official to publicly mention the topic of crimes against journalists in Kosovo. Petkovic hopes that this can pave the way for a more serious approach to the investigation so that the victims and their families finally get justice.

"This is the first time that such a high-ranking EU official publicly mentions the topic of crimes against journalists in Kosovo. While performing their journalistic work, between 1998 and 2005 - 20 Serbian and Albanian journalists and media workers, including a three-member crew of the German magazine Stern, were killed, kidnapped, or disappeared in Kosovo. Only one of those crimes was prosecuted before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. We also had a case where two journalists were kidnapped and released after 41 days, and that crime was never prosecuted either," Petkovic says for Kosovo Online.

She adds that crimes against journalists are crimes against basic human rights, that they affect journalists' overall sense of security and therefore have implications for media freedom and public access to information.

Petkovic adds that bearing in mind that the fight against impunity for crimes against journalists and media workers is crucial and essential for the satisfaction of justice, but also necessary for the further protection of media professionals, bringing those responsible for those crimes to justice is a key element in preventing future attacks.

"We, as fellow journalists, have been trying for years to focus our attention and fight for the truth and against impunity. Before the Assembly of the European Federation of Journalists, two resolutions that call for an investigation of these crimes were adopted; the last one calls for the formation of an international expert commission to investigate the murders, kidnappings, and disappearances of journalists and media workers in Kosovo in the period from 1998 to 2005. We should not forget that insisting on justice for crimes against journalists is not only a social issue. Ensuring justice is paramount for victims and their families. Families deserve to know what happened to their loved ones and that the perpetrators are brought to justice," Jelena Petkovic adds.

In the fight against oblivion, in 2012, the Association of Journalists of Serbia placed a plaque on the road between Zaqishte and Velika Hoca near Orahovac to the missing colleagues Ranko Perenic and Djuro Slavuj, which reads in Serbian and Albanian: "Here on August 21, 1998, our fellow journalists were kidnapped. We are looking for them".

The plaque was torn down eight times and was installed for the ninth time in May 2022. Only once did the Kosovo police find the culprit.

Two journalists from the German "Stern" Gabriel Gruner, Volker Kramer, and translator Senol Aliti were killed on June 13, 1999, near Prizren.

"The Stern editorial team made a huge effort to find out what happened. The investigation lasted 18 months, and the results were handed over to the criminal police in Hamburg, which launched an investigation. According to the information I received from the Office of the Chief Prosecutor of Hamburg, on March 16, 2001, the Higher Regional Court in Hamburg issued an arrest warrant for the accused Aleksandar T. on suspicion of murder and robbery with a fatal outcome. Based on that, the Hamburg Prosecutor's Office issued an international arrest warrant for the accused in April 2001 and for the arrest of the accused Aleksandar in April 2005," Petkovic says.

The chief prosecutor also said that "the accused could not be interrogated until now, given that his whereabouts are unknown. In 2010, we were informed that the accused was no longer alive. However, since there is no reliable information about this, the search for him continues."