A recently published video on Telegram by Milosh Medenica has brought back to the center of debate one of the darkest and unresolved events of the Kosovo war. Medenica mentions the name of Boban Baçoviq as one of the suspects for the execution of six young Serbs at the “Panda” café in Peja, on December 14, 1998.
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Baçoviq, born in Nikšić, Montenegro, has been described in some reports as an individual with former ties to Serbia’s State Security Service (RDB). Recently, his name has also been linked to the suspected criminal group “Shkaljari”.
According to claims made in that video, Baçoviq is suspected of having been involved in an operation of Serbia’s security structures during 1998. The purpose of this operation, according to Medenica, was to create a justification for a military and police offensive in Kosovo, as the conflict there was escalating.
“Boban Baçeviq has been known since the 1990s as a collaborator of the former State Security Service. Specifically, in 1998, when the escalation of the conflict in Kosovo was at its peak, the RDB designed an attack on Serb civilians to legitimize an armed intervention. This mission, according to this claim, was entrusted to Boban Baçeviq, who on December 14, 1998, together with another person, carried out a brutal murder with automatic weapons of six young Serbs at the ‘Panda’ café, five of whom were minors and one an adult,” Medenica stated in the recording.
However, these statements have not been confirmed by judicial bodies. To date, there is no official indictment or court ruling implicating Baçoviq in this event. Consequently, the distributed claims should be considered as unverified.
The massacre at the “Panda” café occurred on the evening of December 14, 1998, when armed individuals fired inside the venue in Peja, killing six young Serbs and wounding 15 others.
Immediately after the crime, Slobodan Milošević’s regime exploited the event to blame the Albanians and the Kosovo Liberation Army. This crime became part of Belgrade’s propaganda to portray Albanians as aggressors against Serb civilians and to justify the intensification of Serbian forces’ operations on the ground.
Over time, this official version began to be questioned. A key moment was 2013, when Aleksandar Vučić, then Serbia’s deputy prime minister, publicly stated that there was no evidence that the perpetrators of the murders were Albanian. He also predicted that when the truth about the “Panda” case came to light, Serbian public opinion would be surprised.
Following this statement, the Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office in Serbia opened an investigation to clarify the case. However, even though years have passed, this process has not led to any criminal charges and no one has been held accountable for the murder of the six young men.
It is precisely the lack of a judicial epilogue that has long fueled suspicions that the assassination could have been an act organized by certain structures within the Serbian state, with the aim of influencing the political and military course during the conflict in Kosovo.
In various analyses, journalistic investigations and media reports, other names of former high-ranking officials of Serbia’s security systems have been mentioned, such as Jovica Stanišić, Franko Simatović (known as “Frenki”), Radomir Marković and Milorad Ulemek (known as “Legija”).
However, these names appear only in speculation and analyses about a possible role of the services in organizing or covering up the crime. None of them have faced formal charges or convictions for the “Panda” massacre.
Many researchers and analysts consider this case as a highly controversial example of how, during the Kosovo war, covert operations and security mechanisms may have been used for political and propaganda purposes.
The logic behind these analyses suggests that an attack against Serbs, presented as an act of Albanians, would strengthen the perception of a threatened Serb population in Kosovo and would secure support for the harsh actions of the Belgrade regime.
However, these remain interpretations and have not been proven through a full judicial process or a final ruling.
Over the years, various observers have also drawn parallels with other serious crimes in the region, where there is suspected intertwining of parallel structures, secret services and criminal networks with political interests.
In this context, cases such as the murder of Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanović, or the armed attack in Banjska near Zvečan, have been mentioned, raising questions about the function of these groups in achieving political objectives. However, each case has its own investigations and specific circumstances, and the direct link to the “Panda” case remains in the realm of analysis, not of legally confirmed facts.
As long as justice has not issued a ruling identifying the perpetrators, the massacre at the “Panda” café remains an unhealed wound of the Kosovo war.
The recent statements of Milosh Medenica have once again emphasized the necessity of fully clarifying this event, finding the perpetrators and determining institutional responsibilities.
Almost three decades after the murder of the young Serbs in Peja, the victims’ families are still waiting for an answer from justice as to who committed this crime.
The lack of an indictment and a conviction has meant that the “Panda” case continues to be the subject of unfinished investigations, various analyses and postulates, while the real perpetrators have still not been brought to justice.
