The legal representative of the families of the victims killed in the “Panda” café massacre in Kosovo, Ivan Ninić, has called on Serbia’s State Public Prosecutor to launch an extraordinary review of the handling of the case and examine the work of the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime.
According to a request reviewed by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Ninić argues that the Belgrade-based Prosecutor’s Office has failed for more than three years to respond to requests to question several witnesses in the long-unresolved case.
Among those the lawyer has requested to be questioned is Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who previously claimed he possessed information about the killing of six Serbian youths at the “Panda” café in Peja, Kosovo, in December 1998.
Neither the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime nor the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office responded to RFE/RL’s inquiries regarding the lawyer’s request. President Vučić’s office also declined to comment.
On December 14, 1998, six young Serbs—Ivan Obradović, Zoran Stanojević, Svetislav Ristić, Dragan Trifović, Vukosav Gvozdenović, and university student Ivana Radović—were killed when two masked gunmen entered the “Panda” café in Peja and opened fire.
The massacre remains one of the most controversial and unresolved cases from the Kosovo conflict. Over the years, questions have persisted regarding the circumstances of the attack and the lack of accountability, while Serbian authorities have yet to provide a definitive conclusion despite repeated public statements by senior officials.
