The mother of one of the six young men killed in the 1998 “Panda” café massacre in Pejë has renewed calls for Serbian authorities to disclose the full truth about the case, announcing that she intends to sue the Serbian state and urging President Aleksandar Vučić to fulfill his long-standing promise to reveal what happened.
In an interview with Serbian outlet Nova.rs, Ljubica Trifović, whose son was among the victims, said the families have been waiting for answers for nearly three decades and accused Serbian institutions of remaining silent despite possessing crucial information.
“We know everything, every single detail, but the main person remains silent,” Trifović said, referring to President Vučić. “Three times he said he would invite us for a meeting, and he never did.”
She said the families are determined to learn not only who carried out the killings, but also who ordered the attack.
“I will sue the state. Let them tell the truth. Vučić once said the public would be shocked when it learned what really happened. Who killed our children? For us, it is not only important to know who pulled the trigger, but who gave the order,” she stated.
Trifović also claimed that responsibility for the case has been shifted from one institution to another over the years, while no definitive answers have been provided.
“It is difficult to publicly admit that these children were killed by Serbs. But we have known that for a long time. I only want to speak with Vučić,” she said.
Reflecting on the wider significance of the case, Trifović argued that the Panda killings influenced later events in Kosovo.
“If there had been no ‘Panda,’ there would have been no Račak. Everyone knows that. Because of ‘Panda,’ Račak was presented in the way it was,” she said, expressing her personal opinion regarding the events.
She also maintained that from the very beginning she rejected claims that ethnic Albanians were responsible for the killings.
“I said they were not killed by Albanians, and many people asked me, ‘How can you say that as a mother?’ But whenever there is a murder with no evidence and decades pass without justice, you begin to understand who is behind it,” Trifović said.
She accused Serbian state institutions of suppressing the truth and said she believes elements within the country’s security structures were responsible for the crime.
“The parents want only justice and an end to the silence. After 28 years, we deserve to know the truth. Are we going to leave it to our children to discover what happened?” she asked.
The Panda café killings took place on December 14, 1998, when six Serbian teenagers were shot dead in a café in Pejë during the Kosovo war. The case remains one of the most controversial unsolved crimes of the conflict, with competing narratives and shifting investigative conclusions over the years. Vučić himself has previously suggested that the official version of the case may not reflect the full truth, though no final judicial determination has been reached.
