DISAPPEARED PERSONS IN KOSOVO

AIM Pristina, 6 May, 1998

The tragic events which in the central part of Kosovo, and since past several days in the western region as well, including villages in Djakovica and Decani municipalities, have been going on uninterrupted for almost two months, apart from victims - and there are already more than one hundred of them already, several ten wounded and numerous families left homeless, have brought to the local public, both Albanian and Serb, the problem of "disappeared" members of these families. Some of them are believed to be hostages, but there are also those who have disappeared without a trace.

Only during the armed incidents in the beginning of March in the region of Drenica, political and humanitarian organizations stationed mostly in the capital of Kosovo, registered disappearance of "at least" 17 persons, out of which 14 from the village of Prekaze in the region of Srbica. Thirteen persons are from the numerous Jashari family (according to allegations of Pristina Committee for protection of human rights, in the conflicts with the police at least 27 persons from this family were killed). Two of them, a brother and a sister, are from the village of Trstenik and one person is from the village of Tusile which is also in the municipality of Srbica, who according to the source of the Committee which as a NGO operates on the entire territory of Kosovo, "was kidnapped by Serb forces in the vicinity of his village." According to these data, there are eight women among the disappeared, and ten out of the total number are under 30 years of age.

The most controversial case is the one of the six-member family of Sadik Jashari from Donje Prekaze and two of their relatives who are believed to have remained in the cellar during the attack on their house before it was levelled to the ground and set on fire. In the Committee for protection of human rights and freedoms in Srbiica they claim that they attempted to go to the place of the armed conflict in order to gather data, but that they were not allowed to do so by the police. Vice president of the Committee, Adem Meta, stresses that the police still does not permit "anyone to go near that place".

Workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross seated in Pristina were also interested in this case and they tried to find the bodies by digginbg around the demolished house, but had no success. Adem Meta claims that "the police did not allow anybody to help them remove the construction material of the destroyed house". This same source expresses doubt that, since almost two months have passed without any information about members of this family, the police had found the bodies and "removed them in order to conceal evidence".

In Srbica people still talk about the case of Smaili Jashari who "was last seen in the yard of the ammunition factory at the outskirts of this town - covered with blood from torture". Certain Idriz Idrizi, also from the village of Donje Prekaze, disappeared on 23 January, or more precisely on the day after the first clash near the estate of Adem Jashari, when two girls from this family were wounded. He himself was also last seen on the day he disappeared in the vicinity of this factory which among the Albanian population around Srbica is beliebed to have been "turned into a place for concentration of various Serb armed forces from where they plan attacks on Albanian villages".

The question of disappeared persons, despite efforts of humanitarian organizations whose "hands are tied" because they are prevented to visit the site of the crisis, partly because of the "suggestion" of the authorities and partly because of inconveniences they may experience on the territory where natives or members of the armed groups of Kosovo Albanians (Liberation Army of Kosovo - OVK) are, will probably remain an open issue for a long time to come. Humanitarian organizations stress their impotence among other because of their "very limited mandate", as their personnel says. To the question about more precise information from the field and their activities, they refer to their offices in Belgrade and over there the officials claim that they have absolutely no data about disappeared persons in the region of Drenica. In this context, the OUN High Commissioner for refugees, Sadako Ogata, concerning the disappeared persons during her short visit to Kosovo, briefly stated: "We know nothing".

As violence in Kosovo escalated and spread to municipalities of Decani and Djakovica, the number of disappeared persons increased. Along with the Albanians, there are members of the Serb and Montenegrin nationality among them. Some Serb sources claim that there are another ten (some say eleven) persons who are held prisoners by the "other party", after a few days ago Mikic brothers (Igor, Slobodan and Vladan) from Klina were released at the same spot where they had been kidnapped. According to the statement of the Media Centre in Pristina, they were "kidnapped by an armed group of Albanians on 26 April and released on 30 April". According to the same source, 11 members of the Serb and Montenegrin nationality were kidnapped since 22 April on the territory of Kosovo, and referring to municipal authorities in Decani, it is added that two of them - Slobodan Radosevic and Milos Radunovic from the village of Dasinovac were "killed and their bodies were found by the road at the entrance to the village". This same source states that Radosevic's wife is in Dasinovac, held in her house as a hostage, as well as Vlahovic couple from the village of Donji Ratis, and that "the destiny of the other kidnapped persons is still uncertain", reported the Media Centre, which was founded by the Union of Journalists of Serbia. Information offered by the Serb Resistance Movement headed by Momcilo Trajkovic, partly confirms the former. Some Belgrade dailies carried news that the delegation of this party had visited Prizren, Djakovica, Decani and Klina and that they learnt from a group of the Serbs that "they keep another seven elderly men and women prisoners as hostages in the vicinity of the village of Glodjane and that nobody has taken serious action to liberate them". It is stated in the same piece of news that the citizens have denied the information about murder of Slobodan Radosevic from near Decani and "confirmed that along with him and Milos Radunovic, Milovan Vlahovic, Milka Vlahovic, Mika Radunovic, Dara Vujovic and Vukosana Vujosevic are also held hostages".

"Disappearance" of Dr. Hafir Shala, humanitarian activist from municipality Glogovac is also controversial, since he was arrested by the police more than ten days ago. After the arrest, there is no trace of him although the police does not deny that he had been arrested along with two other men who were released soon after. The Humanitarian Right Fund was concerned about this case and demanded explanation from the Ministry of Justice, but to this day received no answer...

AIM Pristina

Arbnora BERISHA