UNS info

28. 03. 2018.

Author: Jelena L. Petković ???source???: UNS

The son of Ljubomir Knezevic, Goran: Nothing can be hidden forever

Of course, my father knew what was happening in Vushtrri at the time, but he was simply brave. He was not afraid, he was proud Montenegrin and probably counting on the fact that he did nothing wrong. And that's what he got for his goodness and justice - says Goran, the son of Ljubomir Knezevic for the Journalists Association of Serbia (UNS).

The journalist of the Pristina-based "Jedinstvo" and the correspondent of "Politika" disappeared on May 6, 1999, while performing a work assignment. It's been 19 years since his family has no information what happened and what is the fate of a well-known journalist, not only by his writing, but also known for his cheerful spirit, dense mustaches and a gentlemen’s hat that he was wearing.

- I do not know many things because I was not there. The deceased mother told me that, my father was at Laketics at slava. Laketic family has lived next to the railway station, and that road from the railway station to the center of the city where we lived was a glade. My father went on foot because he did not have the car. We unofficially heard that he was held by the KLA. The deceased mother went with the neighbor to the then police station and reported my fathers disappearance. She did not went the same day because she knew what his job was, but it was unusual for her to leave her alone at home all night. She told me that the police went in search from the center of the city to the Sitnica river and towards the village of Bukos on the slopes of the Čičavica mountain. The police, allegedly, did not dare to go further, because the KLA was in that place. My brother went to Vushtrri, inquired, asked around, but he was told that the police had done everything they could. For some time I thought that they might be holding him for some exchange, because he was a journalist. I tried to find out something through some of his colleagues, but it was all like I’m facing a Chinese wall. Nobody knew anything. Also, we found out about my fathers disappearances by watching "TV Jagodina". His colleagues from Radio Pristina, were the first one to come to visit my mother, as well as my father’s great friend, a correspondent of Politika from Pristina and colleagues from Jedinstvo. They said "it was better that they have killed him immediately than to torture him" - Goran Knezevic recalls. 

Recalling the agony that the entire family has been elapsing for almost two decades, without any indication that it will somehow and sometime find out what happened to his father, for Goran Knezevic, is torturous and traumatic. It is clear to him, and this is also what all the documents that UNS obtained have shown, that the disappearance of our colleague, besides the Serbian police, was also reported to the International Committee of the Red Cross, UNMIK, KFOR, other international organizations, including the International Public Prosecutor in Pristina. On the other hand, none of them conducted an effective investigation, and nobody contacted the family.

- We did not even know that an investigation was launched, nor that some prosecution dealt with it, nothing. Nobody called my mother, my brother or me. On the last day when the army and the police withdrew from Kosovo, on June 12, 1999, we went to persuade our mother to leave. On the road we were stopped and people were telling us not to go. Fortunately, she entered the bus with other staff of the hospital where she worked, and then went down at her sister place in Ibarska Slatina. I will never forget that scene and that relief, when I saw her alive and healthy. Since then, none of us have lived in Kosovo. Despite all the information that appeared, including the fact that Slobodan Milosevic at the Hague trial said that my father was killed, I did not lose hope that he is alive. I hope that the truth will come out and I rely on your journalistic guild not to go into oblivion. He might be found.

Ljubomir Knezevic graduated from the journalistic school in Belgrade and then started to work as a journalist. Goran remembers his father as a righteous, honest, social man who did not like injustice and worshiped his job.

- It's an old guard. They worked in a makeshift manner, and unbelievably, nothing was difficult for them. They loved that job. I never heard him getting angry and upset about the finances. He was angry if he his article was not published or shortened. Apart from writing for “Jedinstvo” and “Politika”, he also helped Radio Prishtina when they started their program. It was a team, a team of real journalists who worked by following their harts. The money was not a motive for them. My father didn’t even owned a car. He had an investigative spirit; he was extremely eloquent, narrative, creative, fearless and fair. Among the topics he was covering, some of them were sensitive, and he he lived in the surroundings where even the comma in the wrong place was politics. He, in turn, dealt with such political topics in such a way that everyone was afraid of his articles. He probably had problems for fair writing. If he had made compromises, he would be a rich man. He lived modestly as all journalists do. But we never talked about it because he did not want to burden the family - adds Goran Knezevic. 

Ljubomir Knezevic came from Ulcinj to Vushtrri to serve in the army. One day he had a tooth pain and he sought help in the Health Center. And there he met accoucheuse Cveta from Socanica, since in the same building there was a maternity ward. And that anecdote, "he went to fix the tooth, and met the accoucheuse”, became a friendly joke, light motive at many gatherings.

- They married in Vushtrri and founded a family. At that time, there were a lot of Orthodox people living; there was the Cultural Center, many Montenegrin professors and teachers who founded families there. Mother and father had a beautiful and harmonious life and did not harmed  anyone. She was a accoucheuse, he was a journalist. Somehow I could understand if he was in uniform, that he was a part of some paramilitary formation, so it would be easier and clearer for me to understand what happened to him. But he was just doing his journalistic work. It's hard for me to when see that the life of a journalist is - nothing, zero in some situations. Again, I hope that nothing can be hidden forever - concludes Goran Knezevic.

The first and the second investigative article about the disappearance of “Politika” journalist Ljubomir Knezevic, you can read HERE.

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