Anniversary of the abduction of journalists Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic: Families and colleagues have been seeking the truth for 28 years

On this day 28 years ago, while on a journalistic assignment on the Velika Hoca–Zociste road, Radio Pristina journalists Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic were abducted. Their abduction has never been solved, and their families and colleagues have been searching for the truth and justice for nearly three decades.

On August 21, 1998, Slavuj and Perenic set out for the Monastery of the Holy Healers in Zociste to prepare a report about the return of abducted monks.

They were seen in Velika Hoca during the morning, from where they headed toward Zociste. After traveling several kilometers, their Zastava 128 car turned onto the wrong road, which led them to members of the KLA.

From that moment, all trace of them was lost, and to this day their families and colleagues have received no official information about their fate.

A memorial plaque was erected near the site of the abduction in 2012 in order to keep this unresolved case from being forgotten. It bears the following inscription in Serbian and Albanian:

“Here, on August 21, 1998, our journalist colleagues were abducted. We are looking for them.”

The memorial plaque, however, has been vandalized and demolished nine times so far, most recently at the end of July this year.

For this reason, the Association of Journalists of Serbia, together with its branch, the Association of Journalists of Kosovo and Metohija, announced that it would restore the memorial for the tenth time.

In 2017, EULEX confirmed that Perenic and Slavuj had been abducted by KLA members who, after threatening them with weapons, took them in an unknown direction.

However, EULEX suspended the investigation due to a lack of evidence.

The abduction of Ranko Perenic and Djuro Slavuj is just one part of a tragic series of unresolved disappearances and killings of journalists in Kosovo.

Between 1998 and 2005, 19 journalists and media workers were killed, kidnapped, or disappeared in Kosovo while carrying out their work.