All is said, nothing is said

That evening, December 14, 1998, fourteen-year-old Ivan Obradović was supposed to be at basketball practice. However, he decided to go to his aunt's for dinner with his family and run. The city was eerily deserted, Albanian shops - closed.

"My beloved Suad Sabović ran the cafe 'Panda', high school students used to gather there", says Lazar Obradović, Ivan's dad. They were two small rooms near the gymnasium where students came when they missed classes, to drink juice, eat a sandwich, play cards in the evening...

In the background was the house where Šabović lived with his family.

"The wife and two daughters went to the house, and Ivan and I went down to the cafe until dinner was ready," continued Lazar.

That evening, in "Panda", young men play lora at one table, fircik at another. They joke, talk, laugh... Ivan Obradović sits with them on a bar stool, and in the next room are Suad Šabović and Lazar Obradović.

"The door of the 'Panda' was normally locked, but in the meantime, two boys came out and left it open. That's when they broke in," says Obradović.

photo: Zoran Zestić / Tanjug

Around eight past ten in the evening, two masked attackers enter and shoot at those present. They fire dozens of bullets. Ivan Radević (25), Ivan Obradović (14), Vukota Gvozdenović (16) and Dragan Trifović (17) were killed on the spot. In the Pristina hospital, Svetislav Ristić (17) and Zoran Stanojević (18) died of their wounds that night.

Nikola Rajović, then nineteen years old, dropped a cigarette on the floor - he bent down to pick it up at the moment when the attackers entered. He was slightly wounded, a ricochet hit him in the finger.

Vlada Lončarević (18) and Mirsad Šabović (34) were seriously wounded.

"WE ARE SORRY" I "GOODBYE"

Lazar Obradović is somewhat reluctant to tell what his son was like, because, as he says, it is not polite to talk about his son in superlatives. And Ivan was a versatile, talented and, above all, a noble child: a student of the generation in elementary school, a successful athlete, he was interested in theater and radio - whatever he got his hands on, he was good at it. He loved people and life.

"When Ivan was killed, beggars came to our door to express their condolences because he shared the money we gave him for breakfast with them," Obradović continues.

To this day - 26 years later - the parents do not know who shot their children. The authorities in Belgrade, one after the other, either refused to receive them or would talk to them, say that they were very sorry, they would do what they could, and then again - impenetrable silence would follow.

"SHOULD WE BECOME THE SAME AS MURDERERS"

At first, everyone was convinced that it was the work of Albanians. The conflict between Serbian forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army continued. No one knew what was really going on. It was a time of disturbances, murders, ambushes...

"That night the city was deserted, all Albanian shops were closed. Some take it as proof that the Albanians planned the crime. And maybe there was some connection, who would know...", says Lazar. "And then our people started saying - let's get holy. To whom should we worship, I say, so aren't we becoming just like murderers! These are the situations from which anything and everything can be born... But fortunately, as far as I know, there were no revenges."

The investigation into the crime in the "Panda" cafe is taken over by the State Security and within a few days they arrest 34 Albanians. Six people are suspected of the crime. Public Safety stops working on the case.

"I believe that the public police in Pec would have found out who the murderers were if the State Security had not stopped the investigation by arresting several Albanians," says Beta agency journalist Velimir Perović, then a correspondent for RTS from Pec.

A year later, the court in Belgrade acquitted them all due to lack of evidence. In last year's interview with Radio Free Europe, one of them, Agron Kolćak (26 years old at the time of his arrest), says that he experienced terrible torture in 12 months in a Serbian prison, that he was not beaten into unconsciousness by prison guards, but by unknown people who came from sides.

photo: ap photo

SERVING UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE AUTHORITY

And then, quite unexpectedly, Aleksandar Vučić, speaking on Pink TV in 2013, stated that there are many terrible things that we will have to face, such as the murder of Serbs in the "Panda" cafe, for which there is no evidence that they were carried out by Albanians as previously believed. In the following months, the media published a series of articles in which it was almost unquestionable that the state was responsible for the crime.

Of course, although since then many have been convinced that it was a crime for which the state is responsible, the truth has not been revealed. Everything that followed later to this day seems like playing too cruelly with the pain of the families and citizens of Peć.

Nebojša Stefanović, as Minister of Police, declared in 2015 that the MUP did not have any information; Ivica Dacic adds that it is dangerous to speculate and baselessly grant amnesty to Albanian terrorist groups. Vučić then announces again that he knows what happened, but that there is a problem with the evidence, that in 2017, in a much more subdued tone, he would say that he has certain information, but that he is not a prosecutor, so he cannot talk about it. At what point did he realize that he was not the prosecutor?

Finally, a year later, he praises himself for being the first to gather the courage to talk about that crime and that the parents of the victims can rest easy and that everything will come to light. Aleksandar Vučić never once agreed to see his parents for ten minutes and tell them what he knew.

"Aleksandar Vučić owes a big apology to the families of the victims and to all the citizens of Pec and Serbia because he caused everyone enormous pain with his statements," Perović points out.

By the way, for the sake of reminding, when the murders took place in "Panda", Vučić was the minister of information in the then government. There were ten thousand people at the funeral of the murdered young men; no one from the government appeared except for the Vice President of the Assembly, Vojislav Mihailović.

Journalist Velimir Perović, who wrote about the crime in "Panda" from the first day, says that in the Terce dnevnik of RTS, "the information about the murder of children was published before the weather forecast itself, in the form of abbreviated news". The duty editor had previously refused to accept his report because he did not have an official statement from the investigating judge, which could not be obtained that night.

And in the Second Daily of RTS, two nights in a row, but before the murders, the news was broadcast that the KLA decided to attack places where Serbian youth gather. That news, Perović points out, was not published in any other media, not even on RTV Priština.

"Days ago, as soon as it got dark, both Albanians and Serbs closed themselves in their houses," says Perović. Guards were already organized in front of some Serbian bars. "At that time, the local government had to either ban all catering facilities or order that guards be mandatory."

As is well known, she did not.

KO (NI)IS HEARD

At first, everyone was convinced that the crime was committed by Albanians. It was mostly believed that it was due to revenge - the Yugoslav Army intercepted a KLA column carrying large quantities of weapons, ammunition and money in those days. At that time, nine KLA members were captured and more than 30 were killed.

However, especially after Vučić's statement, most parents today are convinced that "our country killed our children". The investigation by the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime was launched in 2016: three years after the president's announcement and almost 18 years after the crime. Eight years have passed since the initiation of the investigation until today without any results. More than 40 people were heard, but none from the top of the State Security, nor Aleksandar Vučić. And that's all that's left, according to the family's representative, lawyer Ivan Ninić.

"Look at the state of the country, what does five or six old people who lost their children mean to them. Time passes, they are waiting for us to die and that's it," says Lazar Obradović. In the meantime, the prosecutor retired, and the case was taken over by another. To Lazar Obradović, it looks like another round of faking and delaying.

EVERYTHING IS SAID AND NOTHING IS SAID

For all these years, many things have been speculated and conjectured - that, apart from Ramuš Haradinaj and the KLA, Milorad Ulemek Legija and Rade Marković were guilty, that inmates from the "Dubrava" penitentiary in Istok were involved, that the crime was planned by MI6 and the SAS …

Everything has been told a hundred times, but nothing has been said, adds Obradović. At the beginning of the 2000s, Mile Novaković, the head of the criminal police of Serbia, received the parents and asked for a file to be brought. In the file, at that moment, there was one folder with the minutes of the investigation and one statement. So much for six killed and three wounded.

"There was no investigation at all. And as one of the politicians said, where the DB kills, there is no investigation or evidence," says Obradović.

However, one can still speculate - whether it was the state, members of the KLA or, perhaps, even some local Serbs.

"We are looking for evidence, we are asking that Vučić receive us. And he promised it more than once - I will receive my parents, I will tell them what happened. Let him say something, let him say something - don't get your hopes up", says Lazar Obradović.

And there are too many questions.

Why did Aleksandar Vucic say that in 2013? Did he want to send a message to someone in the state, I know what you were doing…? To blackmail someone? Did he get a stronger response to that message?

Why, if he really has information, won't he share his findings with the Prosecutor's Office, which is obviously in the wrong place? Then, on what basis was the investigation reopened? If there is a specific note about it, what does it say? Most importantly, if the state is to blame, who exactly ordered the youths to be killed? Why did he do that? If they wanted to do it in order to turn the public against the Albanians, the relations between the Serbs and the Albanians were already very bad and the war was already going on. If the Albanians are guilty, why was there no investigation at all? Are there any clues?

WHAT PERSON CAN DO THAT

For Aleksandra Stanojević Sibinović, the sister of the murdered Zoran Stanojević, then an eighteen-year-old pupil of the Peć high school, the crime that happened has nothing to do with nationality. In other words, as he explains: "I'm not interested in the nation, I'm interested in the name and surname." It can be Serbian, it can be Albanian, it doesn't matter to me".

She says that she is proud of her parents because they had enough strength, dignity and wisdom not to allow their son and the whole family to be abused by someone and to serve someone's propaganda. Precisely because of this, December is even more painful for her: "That month is coming and you are afraid, because you don't know what you are going to read, who will use it again."

And the statement of the President of Serbia from 2013 is an example par excellence such abuses. "Years pass, then he appears and says - the truth is not what you thought..."

Does she believe that Vučić will ever receive the families of the murdered?

"I don't want him to accept me because I have nothing to talk to him about." I was raised that if I go to someone, I should give them a hand. And I would not be able to extend my hand to a man who is able to declare something like that, and then be - I will say, I will not say. Who is able to do that? How could I ever trust such a person?”

Also, he does not think that Vučić will ever appear before the prosecutor to say what he knows: "We can repeat it - but he said it in 2013 and he has to tell what he knows. But we do not live, unfortunately, in such a country. He asks about everything and he doesn't have to do anything. With that statement, he wanted to tell someone - be careful what you do. But did he think for a moment what he would do to the parents of the murdered children who, after so many years, saw hope in his sentence and said - maybe we will leave this world knowing the truth."

Zoran's father died in 2017.

"IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE"

Aleksandra Stanojević Sibinović does not believe that she will ever find out who ordered and commissioned the murder of her brother. However, since the families hired lawyer Ivan Ninić, he hopes for something else - that the investigation will be completed as soon as possible, even without any results. Because then the collected writings could see the light of day:

"Those documents from the investigation cannot be published until it is finished, and my goal is to create a book from them, where the names and surnames of who said and did what will be written."

The need for such a thing stems from her belief that it might lead to a resolution. "26 years have passed, many people have died... It is important that this book comes out as soon as possible and that our community that lived in Peja reads it, because maybe someone will remember something that they thought was unimportant, but it will make him say - I saw it, heard it..." Aleksandra Stanojević Sibinović read the entire case, everything that was collected. Her main conclusion is that the entire investigation was done in a frighteningly sloppy manner and that the person has nothing to cling to:

"When Zoran was killed, the first feeling was immense sadness, then it turned into anger, so you are angry with the whole people, I went through all the stages. And then you start dividing people into good and bad again. But when I read that article, I was terribly angry again... Because it was done as if it was about stray dogs".

She adds that maybe one day her children or their children will find out the truth. And that's why we need to talk about it.

Finally, how do you find meaning when such a loss hits a family?

"When you become a parent, you start to understand some things," says Aleksandra Stanojević Sibinović. "I remember my dad's words: 'It could have been worse'. 'How could it be worse?' He says, 'I could have been the parent of someone who did this.' And really, it could have been worse, it would have been much worse if I wasn't Zoran's sister, but the sister of one of the killers. That must not be forgotten. Because it is important what kind of young man Zoran was, how friends still talk about him today, how important it is that you don't tarnish your face, that when you say whose you are, that it has weight. And that in the sea of ​​those who are talking today - do you know who I am - my children can proudly say who they are and that their parents were good people. We found solace in that."

Who killed Dr. Nuradin Zeynulahu

"When Vučić announced in December 2013 that the massacre in the 'Panda' cafe was not committed by Albanians, then he received information from the security services that the crime was committed by local Serbs," claims Velimir Perović. He adds that whether these findings are correct or not, Vučić was not allowed to say that because he was aware that there was no evidence. "All the persons that Vučić received information that they had committed a crime were interrogated at the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, but no evidence was found or the state skilfully hid them," says Perović.

"He said that in order to disgust the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija and to carry out the high treason that followed in the following years by handing over all Serbian institutions to the Kosovo government as painlessly as possible," Perović believes.

He points out that one more moment in the whole tragedy is important, but often neglected: less than a month before the murders of the Serbian young men, on November 18, 11, internist Dr. Nuradin Zejnulahu from Pec was killed in his house, which was located twenty meters from "Panda ".

"The ballistics expert at the Pristina SUP determined that the same rifle was used to shoot Dr. Nuradin and the children in the 'Panda' cafe. "If the Pejka police found out who killed the respected doctor, the big question is whether the crime in 'Panda' would have happened at all," concludes Perović.