The Serbs who disappeared into the night

Seven men sit and wait for news on Zarko Spasic in the village of Sibovce, some ten kilometers from downtown Pristina. "We only want to know whether he is alive or not", his father Milorad said. Zarko Spasic, 35, is a driver for the Serbian power industry. He disappeared on May 14 while on duty. He was supposed to pick up a group of workers repairing a coal mine relay in Janjine vode, but he was last seen driving in the opposite direction along with two other vehicles.

Zarko's family says he had been the only one who dared drive at night for quite some time. They blame his employers for his disappearance. The power industry's officials visited Zarko Spasic's family on May 18, only after their workers threatened to go on strike. They made no effort whatsoever to protect their employee.

Spasic's family did not go to the police. They went to the British Embassy, the American Information Center in Pristina, the International Red Cross, the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo and the Parliamentary Party of Kosovo (PPK). The PPK told them that they should talk to the police. "God forbid that the police should get involved, who knows what might happen to him", Zarko's father said. His father, a former police officer, has pulled some personal strings to find his son. They heard he has been shot, that his throat had been cut, and that he was last seen alive and well. After that, an ethnic Albanian "close to the UCK", as Milorad put it, told him hat his son might be being held prisoner in a tunnel near the village of Balinci, allegedly with another six hostages.

The U.S. Information Center asked a foreign reporter to check on the story, as he is believed to have access to this area. The reporter set out for the tunnel on Tuesday, May 19, but his vehicle was intercepted by a UCK patrol before he got there. He told an officer of the UCK, whom he described as "one with a lower rank", that Spasic's family would like to know whether he is alive or not, and if he is being held prisoner in the tunnel. He said the Americans would appreciate it if the UCK came forward and revealed Spasic's fate. The officer said he would pass the message to his superiors, and that's the message the reporter passed on to someone with "quite a reputation in Drenica".
"The word is out, we are still trying", the reporter told Spasic's family.