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Journalists at the installation of the memorial last month. Photo: UNS.

The memorial dedicated to Serbian journalists Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic, who were abducted during the conflict in 1998 on the road between the towns of Orahovac and Zociste in western Kosovo and never seen again, was removed for the third time in three years on Friday.

The Serbian Association of Journalists (UNS) and the Association of Journalists from Kosovo and Metohija said that they “strongly condemn the removal”, and called on the Kosovo authorities to “urgently find the perpetrators”.

“Even though the municipal authorities in Orahovac and the Kosovo police were informed that the monument is there, and needs to be protected, they didn’t do anything. Just 23 days after the monument was rebuilt, only a hole was left, while the monument was taken away,” UNS said in a statement.

Slavuj and Perenic were abducted when they went to do a report on the return of Serbian Orthodox monks to the nearby Zociste monastery. According to UNS, they were in an area controlled by Kosovo fighters. Their bodies and their blue Zastava car was never found.

The memorial said in both Serbian and Albanian: “Here on August 21, 1998, two journalists, Djuro Slavuj and Ranko Perenic, went missing. We are looking for them. UNS.”

It was installed in August this year on the 16th anniversary of their abduction.

In 2012 and 2013, journalists also put up a memorial, but it was removed after a month on both occasions.

The Kosovo minister for returnees, Dalibor Jevtic, said that the latest removal of the memorial was “unacceptable and embarrassing”, arguing that it “causes further discomfort to Serbs in Kosovo”.

“If someone thinks that by removing memorials, they will force us to stop insisting on finding the missing journalists, they are wrong. We will continue seeking justice… I call on the authorities to react,” Jevtic told local media.

In 1998, between July 11 and July 28, the KLA attacked and occupied the town of Orahovac and its surrounding villages – Retimlje, Opterusa, Zociste and Velika Hoca.

During the operation, 47 people were killed, and over 100 Serbs and Roma were kidnapped during and after the fighting.

Sixty of those kidnapped were later freed by the Red Cross.

The remains of the victims were found in 2005, in two mass graves in Kosovo.

The ‘Orahovac 1998’ case was first investigated by the Hague Tribunal but no charges were filed. Later, the case was handed over to the UN mission in Kosovo, which subsequently transferred it to the EU rule-of –law mission, EULEX.

EULEX launched an investigation, but last year, a court in the town of Prizren acquitted seven ethnic Albanians of terrorising Serb villagers and forcing them from their homes.

The Serbian war crimes prosecutor’s office also investigated the case, but due to the lack of evidence against one of the suspects, it was dropped.