by Marijana MILOSAVLJEVIC
They are looking for their loved ones who were abducted or went missing. They have counted that since 1998 about 1,300 of them have either been abducted or went missing in Kosovo and Metohija. The number is not final since new abductions still happen. The association was formed last spring because of "obvious disinterest of the former authorities and the international community". Not a single case from their list has been resolved so far. They are hurt that "their" missing do not have the same significance as other missing persons [ethnic Albanians] about whom media write a lot. They are hurt because they think that no one wants to hear about their misfortune.
Teacher Slavica Zivkovic from Prizren lost her husband on the road between Pristina and Gracanica. She accuses: "The international community did not put any effort in finding the abducted individuals. As witnesses of many abductions they averted their eyes and turned their heads away. Our state also did not do anything. We feel like second class citizens, as if this were not our country."
Activists of the Association have calculated that out of all abducted persons, 20 percent of them were abducted before the NATO aggression on our country, five percent during the aggression, and 75 percent after the arrival of the peacekeeping forces to Kosovo. These data are a clear indication of the errors made by KFOR. The changes in Serbia also haven't brought solace to the refugees. The locals frequently refer to them as "Sloba's voters".
While looking for Vlastimir, Slobodan was also captured by the KLA. "In my son's apartment in Prizren I found an Albanian with short blond hair and black tights. She screamed: 'Your time is over. My house has been looted, my husband hasn't had work for ten years.' As I did not want to leave the apartment, she called Albanian soldiers who robbed me and forced me into a car. KFOR soldiers calmly observed the whole incident."
They drove him to a house and threw him into the cellar. Inside, there was a young man with his arms tied up. He was a Serb and complained that he had been beaten. Then Albanians came in and started to interrogate him. He told them about his son. They told him that he had to pay $50,000 if he wanted to see him.
"I told them that I did not have that money, and that they should kill me and let my son go." They left. Later, five strangers jumped in through the window. "They were armed with batons, knives and machine guns. They tied my hands with a belt. They tied the young guy's legs to a chair. They savagely beat us. Our faces turned black after the beating. Then they left. A bit later the first group came back and they wanted to know who had beaten us. 'Your lot.' 'Liar!' They put a barrel of a machine gun in my mouth and a knife under the boy's throat."
After eight hours the torture was interrupted by KFOR soldiers who came by chance. For eighteen months Slobodan hasn't known anything about the fate of his son. "I was in their hands for less than a half of a day, and I know how that was... I have been trying to find him in all possible ways. I felt the worst when Adem Demaci came to Belgrade and openly said that the KLA had no time to take care of captured Serbs, that all of them have been killed."
Out interlocutor contacted the Red Cross, the Church, international and local non-governmental organizations. He even tried to get some information through the sister of Ekrem Rexha, one of the KLA commanders. His sister, Nexhmija, lives in Kragujevac [in Serbia proper]. It did not help. Various stories are circulating. "Some say that he was killed, some that he is still alive. At night I pray to God that someone get interested in this so that all our abducted are released. Not like this. Only Albanians are mentioned, and no one even asks about our missing. It is nice that everyone is concerned about Ivan Stambolic [Serbian politician, abducted during Milosevic's regime]. However, it is not right that no one cares about our lived ones, more than a thousand of them.
The face of Dragica Majstorovic, aged 44, is washed out by tears. They roll down her face to the white collar of her shirt and disappear in the softness of her black sweater. Her son Ivan Majstorovic disappeared on August 19. "Ivan is a pupil, third year of high school. Therefore he was neither a member of paramilitary formations nor mobilized by the military. He was simply a high school pupil."
"I do not know why they kept Ivan. He is a student and hasn't harmed anyone. It seems that our biggest guilt is that we are Serbs." Dragica has so far received only unofficial information about the fate of her son. Allegedly Ivan and Dragan immediately after the abduction spent two days in an investigative prison in Batlava. "We were told about that by an Albanian." Later, they allegedly worked on the repairs of the road between Pec and Djakovica. Through ham radio operators the family heard that Ivan had been kept for a while with a few other Serbs in a cellar in Pristina. "We were told that had broken his arm there and that it had been put in a cast. That encouraged me because that may indicate that they take care of them."
"I hope that he is alive. Whenever I start losing hope, he appears in my dreams and tells me that he is alive. I've been everywhere. I made over a thousand of his photos. I do not know if there is a single country to which I haven't sent his photo. His photo, with a message, is making rounds of the Internet. I contacted many people and my brother even made it to the U.S. Senate... Last year, an Albanian told me that he was alive and would definitely be exchanged. Later he refused to talk. I've heard all sorts of versions. Some claim that he was murdered on the spot, some that he is in a work camp in Albania, some that he is in Macedonia... We've never stopped looking for him. He is young, strong. We think he'll somehow survive," Dragica says haltingly.
Members of the Association have recently frequently been protesting on the streets of Belgrade. "People usually turn their heads away when they realize what the protest is about. I do not blame them. As if they do not believe that so many people could disappear." However, our interlocutor says that slowly their problem has stopped being a taboo topic. Recently families were received by the president of Yugoslavia, Vojislav Kostunica, who promised to help them. A Federal commission that will try to shed light on the fates of the missing has been formed.
As far as the others are concerned, they all agree. "As if people are afraid of us. They do not want to see us, they avert gaze. It seems that we are the last unwanted burden for Serbia. Here everyone has to take care of himself. We keep together, the others do not understand us. People do not want to hear about tragedies such as ours."
"They said that they did not have a pencil and ordered him to get in the car. I saw two more Serbs in the car, our neighbors Tihomir Miljkovic and Marko Vitosevic. They told us that they would drive them to the office and give them documents for weapons. They never came back," says Jelica.
She says that she did not have any premonitions, because they had not harmed anyone. Her son, as a physician took equal care of Albanians and Serbs. "There were many Albanians at my son's burial, some of them even came on crutches. Almost the whole Orahovac came to express condolences." On that June 16, at night, rain started falling. Her husband had been taken away in a short-sleeved shirt. Jelica took his jacket to the KLA headquarters. She knew that her husband disliked cold and was afraid that he would get sick. "They pointed a gun at me and told me to go home and that he would return in half an hour."
KFOR arrived to Orahovac that night. Jelica told them everything. They told her that they would contact her as soon as they found anything out. She stayed in Kosovo waiting until November. They did not help her. "I am here with my daughter-in-law and my grandchild. It is hard, very hard... I keep thinking that it would not have happened if our neighbors Albanians were at home. However, they also ran away then. There was no one to protect us. I hope that someone saved my husband. I beg anyone who knows anything to let me know... It is not right that no one cares. My husband suffers from diabetes, he is old and sick," Jelica ends in whisper.
The people in the Association are burdened by uncertainty. They will not find peace until they find out the truth. Whatever it may be. Some of them are prepared to face the worst, while others are only kept in life by hope. Such as Olgica Bozanic, maiden name Kostic. She is aged 36, skinny as a young girl, but she does not look like one. Her face is totally pale, bags under her eyes black. Her story is by year older than other stories.
On July 19, 1998 almost all males from her family disappeared in the Orahovac villages of Ocerusa and Ratimlje. Her brothers Todor(33) and Lazar(28) were captured with another 12 relatives by the KLA after the attack on their village Ratimlje. They haven't been seen since then and nothing is known about their fate. The same happened the same night in the village of Ocerusa, where Olgica lived since she got married. Nine of her relatives from her husband's family were captured by Albanians. They also later disappeared.
"I think that I will die from pain and sorrow. I would go crazy if I believed that they were dead," Olgica has no doubt.
Doctor Milivoj Todorovski worked for 35 years as a physician in Pristina. Albanians abducted his son, aged thirty, a student of the last year of dentistry. "In Serbia the authorities are trying to suppress the information that 1,300 people from Kosovo have gone missing. On the other hand, the Albanians are given a lot of publicity in the media. Certain non-governmental organizations publicize only the Albanian cases. We've heard that Flora Brovina complained because she was not receiving Albanian language press besides Serb language press in prison. And what do we know about our kidnapped loved ones? What is up with them? What kind of people are we? I am convinced that KFOR knows very well what is going on with our abducted loved ones. I do not know why Kouchner refuses to say that. Perhaps the new administrator will be different."
The husband of Olivera Budimir was kidnapped on August 2, 1999. "Unfortunately, the time is passing by, and it is not working for our abducted loved ones. We do not want to accuse anyone. We simply want the truth about our loved ones. We have in all our appearances expressed support for the release of ethnic Albanian prisoners and at the same time for the release of the camp inmates on our list. It is wrong that we are today seen as Milosevic's Serbs. The disappearance of our loved ones is not a political problem. They were as civilians abducted on roads or in front of their homes".