(IPI/IFEX) – In a 13 September 2000 letter to the head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Bernard Kouchner, IPI strongly condemned the murder of an ethnic-Albanian journalist in Kosovo. On 10 September, Shefki Popova, a journalist working for the Kosovo daily “Rilindja”, was killed in the city of Vucitrn. Popova […]
(IPI/IFEX) – In a 13 September 2000 letter to the head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Bernard Kouchner, IPI strongly condemned the murder of an ethnic-Albanian journalist in Kosovo.
On 10 September, Shefki Popova, a journalist working for the Kosovo daily “Rilindja”, was killed in the city of Vucitrn. Popova was gunned down by two unidentified persons near the centre of the northern Kosovo town, located eighteen kilometres from Pristina. After shooting Popova, the attackers stabbed him several times with a knife and he died while being taken to hospital.
Popova was the Vucitrn correspondent for
“Rilindja” and had worked for the Albanian-language newspaper for twenty-six years. He also contributed to the paper’s radio station of the same name. Both the paper and the radio station are associated with the Democratic League of Kosovo, a party many commentators believe will be a favourite in the upcoming local elections on 28 October. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has recorded twenty attacks on individuals associated with the party over the last few months, including the killing of a local politician.
According to IPI, acts like these are deplorable and deeply disturbing considering the importance of journalists and the media in the period before the elections. The media play a pivotal role in informing citizens on issues and candidates in election times. Any attack upon journalists is thus an attack upon democracy. In addition, there seems to be a distressing pattern of attempts to intimidate certain parts of the media, thus muzzling public debate.
Another Albanian journalist, Marjan Melonasi, went missing in Pristina on 9 September. Melonasi, a journalist with the Serbian programme of Kosovo Radio-TV, was last seen leaving his workplace and has not been heard from or seen since. Melonasi’s colleagues believe that the abduction was directly related to his speaking Serbian in public, a language very few Albanians in Kosovo use openly.
On 20 June, Valentina Cukic, the editor of the Serbian-language programme on Pristina’s multi-ethnic Radio Kontakt was shot and wounded. At the time of the attack, Cukic was wearing Kosovo Stabilisation Force (KFOR) press credentials, which clearly identified her as a journalist (see IFEX alerts of 23 and 22 June 2000). Radio Kontakt had previously sought protection from the United Nations police, KFOR, and the OSCE in response to escalating threats and violence against the station, including a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the station on 17 April (see IFEX alert of 20 April 2000).
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the special representative of the secretary-general:
– stating that you believe that the acts described contribute to creating a climate of fear and intimidation in which physical attacks are used as retribution for articles journalists write
– urging him to do everything in his power to provide the necessary protection for journalists in order to avoid a repetition of these acts, while highlighting the crucial place of journalists in the peace-building and democratisation process in Kosovo
– urging him to initiate procedures to make the people of Kosovo aware of the importance of the role of the media in democratic elections and in society at large
– suggesting that providing a sound understanding among people of the necessity of the media will accelerate democratic progress and mitigate difficulties faced by any society in transition, including Kosovo
– further urging him to ensure that there is a thorough investigation into these cases, and that those responsible for these heinous crimes are brought swiftly to justice
Appeals To
APPEALS TO:
Mr. Bernard Kouchner
Special Representative of the Secretary-General
Head, UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
C/o UN Headquarters, New York, NY, USA
Fax: +12 12 963 8113
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
