"Without truth and justice even after 28 years."

The cases have traveled a path from UNMIK, through Eulex, to the Kosovo prosecution over a quarter of a century. Families still have no answers to two questions: where are their loved ones and who is responsible.

Today, on the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, media headlines will quote statements, publish numbers, and make appeals. When it comes to the increasingly horrifying impunity for crimes against journalists, Kosovo is rarely mentioned, even though it ranks at the top of the European list for unresolved murders and abductions of journalists.

Journalist Ismail Berbatovci set out on July 23, 1998, for a scheduled meeting with Rama Buj, a member of the operational zone staff of the KLA. What happened to him remains unknown to his family even today.

Đuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenić, a journalistic team from Radio Priština, went on August 21, 1998, to the St. Vrači Monastery in Zočište to prepare a report on the return of abducted monks. They were last seen in Velika Hoča, and a few kilometers later, they took a wrong turn. Since then, all trace of them has been lost. The car they were traveling in has never been found.

Afrim Malići, a journalist for "Rilindje" and later "Bujku," was killed on December 2, 1998, in Sunny Hill, Pristina, along with Hizri Tal, a KLA commander in the Lab zone, and student Ilir Durmishi. His loved ones claim he was killed by Serbian forces. From conversations with representatives of KFOR, UNMIK, and Eulex, we learned that none of these missions investigated this murder.

Enver Maljoku, the founder and director of the Kosovo Information Center, was killed on January 11, 1999, in the afternoon while returning home, just a few meters from his apartment in Sunny Hill. He soon passed away in a Pristina hospital. Months earlier, he had survived an assassination attempt.

Ljubomir Knežević, a journalist for "Jedinstvo" in Pristina and a correspondent for "Politika," went missing on Đurđevdan, May 6, 1999, near Vučitrn, at the foot of Čičavica. Aged sixty at the time, he went to the Laketić family celebration to write a piece. He left on foot around six in the evening and never returned. His family was never officially informed about the investigation.

Gabriel Griner and Folker Kremer, journalists from the German "Stern," along with their driver and translator Senolj Alit, were killed on June 13, 1999, at the Dulje pass near Prizren, one day after KFOR entered Kosovo. The state prosecutor's office in Hamburg issued an arrest warrant for a suspect in 2001, but there is still no verdict for this crime.

Aleksandar Simović Sima, a journalist and translator for Media Action International, was abducted on August 21, 1999, in Pristina. Part of his remains was found on June 8, 2001, in the village of Obrinje near Glogovac. There are witnesses to the abduction. This is the only case that Eulex investigated as a war crime, but there are still no indictments.

Krist Gegaj, a commentator and program editor for Albanian language RTV Pristina, went missing on September 12, 1999, in Istok. The next day, KFOR found his body in the river, two kilometers from his home, with gunshot wounds to the head and heart.

Momir Stokuća, a photojournalist and collaborator with "Politika," was killed on September 21, 1999, in his family home in the center of Pristina, at 15 Đure Jakšića Street, which he refused to leave after the arrival of international forces. The murder was reported to UNMIK police, but the report "disappeared" from their archives. No investigative judge has ever called his sister Branka.

Marjan Melonaši, a journalist for the Serbian section of Radio Kosovo, went missing on September 9, 2000. After a half-hour program that aired from 1:30 PM to 2 PM, he got into an orange taxi across from the radio building. No one has seen him since.

The following day, on September 10, 2000, Shefki Popova, a long-time journalist for "Rilindje," who was also active in local politics, was killed with two shots at the entrance to his apartment in Vučitrn. The murder was deemed to be carefully planned.

Džemajl Mustafa, a journalist for "Bota sot," advisor and spokesperson for Ibrahim Rugova, was killed on November 23, 2000, in front of his apartment in the Dardania neighborhood of Pristina. Two unknown assailants fired at him. This was the third murder carried out in the same manner within just two months.

Bekim Kastrati, a journalist for "Bota sot," was killed on October 19, 2001, in an ambush near the village of Lauša, in the municipality of Srbica, along with two men who were in his car. His father Hajriz has spent years knocking on the doors of UNMIK and Eulex, with no results.

Bardulj Ajeti, a 28-year-old columnist for "Bota sot," was attacked on June 3, 2005, near the village of Bresalce, on the road between Pristina and Gnjilane. He was shot at from a passing car, hit in the head. He died on June 28 in Milan, where he had been taken for treatment. Ajeti had been writing daily commentaries and was one of those who persistently sought to shed light on the murder of Shefki Popova. His case now sits in the same folder of unresolved cases.

Many of these murders were carried out in the same pattern, from ambush or at the doorstep, and were prepared in such a way as to leave no traces behind.

Except for the case of Shaban Hoti, no killer, kidnapper, or attacker on journalists from that period in Kosovo has been punished. Hoti, a professor of Russian language at the University of Pristina, agreed in July 1998 to be a translator for a team from the Russian state television. Together with journalist Oleg Safiulin, cameraman Aleksandr Galanov, and sound technician Viktor Mamaev, he set out on July 21 for the field. KLA members stopped them and took them to a camp in Lapušnik. The Russians were released the same evening, but Hoti was not. He was killed five days later on Mount Berisha. The Hague Tribunal sentenced camp guard Hajredin Balju to 13 years in prison in 2005 for the murders of prisoners on Berisha.

The Plaque They Are Destroying, The Question That Remains

At the place where Slavuj and Perenić were last seen, the Association of Journalists of Serbia and UNS in Kosovo installed a plaque with an inscription in Serbian and Albanian: "Here, on August 21, 1998, our colleague journalists were abducted. We are looking for them."

The plaque has been destroyed nine times. Once, it was ripped out along with its pedestal. Journalists return it to the same spot every time. That persistence is, unfortunately, the only thing that remains.

When I investigated the murders and abductions of journalists in Kosovo from 1998 to 2005 for UNS, the hardest part was tracing the cases themselves. Investigations in 1998 were under the jurisdiction of the Serbian police and prosecution; after the war, they were taken over by UNMIK, then Eulex, and today they are in the hands of Kosovo institutions. Each handover meant lost time and sometimes lost documentation.

Some information was available, however. For instance, the then head of the American diplomatic mission in Kosovo, Sean Burns, stated that it is known who had the most influence in the area where Slavuj and Perenić were abducted.

International Commission as the Only Solution

The cases of murdered and missing journalists are stuck between international administration and two judicial systems that do not communicate with each other: the War Crimes Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade and the Kosovo Special Prosecutor's Office.

The Serbian government has expanded the jurisdiction of the Commission for Investigating the Murders of Journalists to include Kosovo during the period from 1998 to 2000 and has included representatives from the War Crimes Prosecutor's Office and the War Crimes Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Due to this jurisdiction, the commission's scope is limited. Families and colleagues have long seen their last hope in the Specialized Chambers and the Specialized Prosecutor's Office in The Hague.

The European Federation of Journalists has adopted three resolutions concerning murdered, kidnapped, and missing journalists in Kosovo. The latest, from May 2024 in Pristina, calls for the establishment of an international expert commission to assist in investigating the murders, abductions, and disappearances of 19 journalists and media workers. It would include representatives from the judiciary of Belgrade and Pristina, UNMIK and Eulex, as well as journalistic associations.

It is also requested that the Specialized Chambers in The Hague open investigations into the murdered and missing journalists and media workers from 1998 to 2005, that the United Nations compensate the families of the victims and inform the public about it, and that the Council of Ministers of the EU determine whether Eulex violated the European Convention on Human Rights by not investigating these crimes.

None of these requests have been fulfilled to date.

On this day, we will all emphasize that impunity is not just an injustice towards the dead, but also a message to the living. These people were not killed because they were Albanians, Serbs, or Germans, but because they were journalists. A society in which no one has been held accountable for the 17 murdered, abducted, and missing colleagues finds it hard to convince those who today threaten that the law will catch up with them.

Author: Jelena L. Petković