Journalists' Memorial Plaque Restored for 10th Time

The memorial plaque to Radio Pristina journalists Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic is back on the road between Velika Hoca and Zocisce, near Orahovac. Members of the Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS) and its branch in Kosovo put it up on August 23, marking the tenth time it has been installed since it was first raised in 2012. The plaque was restored two days after the 28th anniversary of the two journalists’ abduction, which falls on August 21.

Alongside journalists from Serbian language media in Kosovo and central Serbia, the installation was attended by UNS president Zivojin Rakocevic, Snezana Perenic, Ranko Perenic’s wife, and their grandson Matija Perenic. Also present was Maid Konjhodzic, director of the political office and information office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Pristina, along with Ninoslav Miljkovic, a longtime UNS member and editor-in-chief of Alpres in Aleksinac. Representatives of the Association of Families of Missing Serbs from the Orahovac municipality also attended the ceremony.

The plaque, written in both Serbian and Albanian, reads: “Our colleagues, journalists Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic, were abducted here on August 21, 1998. We are looking for them.” This marks the tenth time the same memorial has been installed since it was first put up in 2012, on the 14th anniversary of the abduction. In the meantime it has been torn down or defaced nine times, most recently in late July of this year.

On August 21, 1998, Slavuj and Perenic set out for the Sveti Vraci monastery in Zocisce to cover the return of abducted monks. They were last seen in Velika Hoca, from where they continued down the road, took a wrong turn, and have not been traced since. Twenty-eight years have passed since the abduction, and their fate remains unresolved.

Rakocevic said putting up the plaque is both an act of remembrance and an act of resistance.

“We are raising a monument to the truth, to the profession, to Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic, for the tenth time,” said the UNS president, adding that families and colleagues see the memorial as the only place that is left to them. “Families, colleagues, and friends see this plaque as the only marker between a past life and disappearance,” Rakocevic said.

Konjhodzic attended the ceremony and pointed out that the disappearance of the two journalists remains an open question for the OSCE.

“The memory of Ranko Perenic and Djuro Slavuj obliges us to keep searching for answers. Their families deserve justice,” Konjhodzic said. He added that the commemoration is about more than simply remembering: “This commemoration is not just an act of remembrance, violence and threats must not silence the truth.”

Has anyone been held accountable for destroying the plaque?

Of the nine previous instances in which the plaque was torn down or defaced, Kosovo police have identified and prosecuted a perpetrator only once. Saban Berisa received a suspended three month prison sentence and a 200 euro fine from the Basic Court in Djakovica for destroying the memorial in 2019. No perpetrator has been identified for the other eight incidents, including the one in late July of this year.

The investigation into the abduction itself was initially led by UNMIK, and later by EULEX, which confirmed in 2017 that Slavuj and Perenic had been abducted by members of the so-called KLA. Jurisdiction over the case has since passed to Kosovo institutions, and no new progress in the investigation has been reported so far.

The Srpske vesti portal reported on the 28th anniversary of Slavuj and Perenic’s abduction nine days ago, when the anniversary was marked at the same site. The plaque’s reinstallation two days later shows that the question of their fate remains open, along with the question of who is systematically destroying the only physical trace of them that remains on the road to Zocisce.