Lost in the Woods

"You have declared yourself as a champion of humanity many times. Now is your chance to prove it", said the Kosovo information minister Bosko Drobnjak in an open letter to Adem Demaqi, the political representative of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Drobnjak has asked Demaqi to broker the release of Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic, the reporter and driver of Radio Pristina, who disappeared near Orahovac on July 21st and are believed to have been abducted by the KLA. Demaqi replied instantly by promising Belgrade's B 92 radio he would do everything he could to broker the release of the two radio employees. Demaqi said he believed the two had been abducted by factions who weren't under control of the KLA headquarters. "If they are still alive, and I pray to God they are, maybe something could be done for their release", said Demaqi. Sofija Slavuj, the wife of the kidnapped reporter, said she would go on a hunger strike if the ICRC failed to bring news that her husband is alive and well.

Milivoje Mihajlovic, the Pristina radio editor-in-chief, said last Wednesday that the US information center in Pristina had told him that US observers were searching for the missing reporters in the Orahovac area. The ICRC Pristina representatives admitted, as Sofija Slavuj claims, that they were powerless to find her missing husband.
The reporter and driver set off for Orahovac around eight o'clock in the morning. Djuro Slavuj, who escaped Croatia during operation "Storm" when Croat troops took the former Republic of Serb Krajina, wanted to make a documentary about a local monastery near Orahovac, where seven priests and a nun were kidnapped a month ago during a KLA offensive. They were all released later after an ICRC intervention. It is certain that the two had made it to Orahovac because they were seen there in the afternoon by Serb police. The chairman of the Velika Kodza village, Miroslav Mihajlovic, confirmed that Slavuj and Perenic were in the village that day. The Velika Hodza inhabitants said that the two had told them they were on their way to the Zociste monastery.

It is believed that they had failed to take a left turn and headed for a nearby forest, where armed ethnic Albanians have attacked quite a few police patrols in the past few weeks. They disappeared without trace and their fate remains a mystery. There have been a few anonymous phone calls saying they were no longer alive. Ranko Perenic's father and brother have set off for Orahovac as soon as they heard what happened, but their own investigation has so far been fruitless. Their family is reluctant to talk to reporters, saying they are sure that it could only harm Ranko.  Various media associations have reacted to the abduction of Slavuj and Perenic. All of them asked for their immediate release and the involvement of major humanitarian institutions. However, it is unlikely that their appeal will be effective because neither of the sides in the conflict is friendly to reporters. KLA fighters have shot at local reporters a number of times during the past six months. Fortunately, no one has been wounded or killed in the incidents. Foreign reporters have been harassed by the KLA and had their gear taken away on many occasions, while two Russian reporters were KLA captives for a day and were severely beaten before they were released.  Serb troops have also been less than friendly to reporters in the first few months of clashes. Like their KLA counterparts, they often took away cameras, films and bullet-proof vests from reporters. Sometimes they even pointed guns to their heads and threatened to pull the trigger. Chris Haynes, the cameraman of the British Channel 4 television station, ended up in hospital after a Serb rally in Pristina several months ago. He was beaten up by a group of civilians while shooting with his camera an individual who was waving a gun at the rally. The daily in ethnic Albanian Koha Ditore says that Adem Metay, their Srbica correspondent, had to leave the village because his life was in jeopardy there. The daily's Djakovica correspondent, Musa Kurhasku, was arrested on August 19 and held in custody for a week, during which he was interrogated and beaten on a daily basis. He was told to broker the release of a Serb civilian when he was released and that he would be arrested again if he failed to accomplish the task. Kurhasku had no choice but to flee Djakovica and the Koha Ditore editors say that even they do not know of their reporter's present whereabouts.

There is no doubt that reporters themselves are partly to blame for what is happening to them. Some of them did not hesitate to go public with unreliable reports as they couldn't get enough reliable ones. Others thought their job was propaganda. However, both the KLA and the Serb troops are harassing reporters because they know that many things they are doing would look atrocious if they were published.

As far as the fate of Slavuj and Perenic is concerned, the most troublesome thing is that they were the first employees of Serbian state media to fall into the hands of armed ethnic Albanians. KLA fighters just might take out on them all the insults heard on the Serbian television prime time news broadcast, although the two reporters have nothing to do with this science fiction series. The case is politically important for two reasons. The fate of the two reporters will show to what extent Adem Demaqi is able to influence the KLA headquarters and to what extent the KLA commanders are able to control their troops