Killed Serbian Embassy official begged to be sent home from Libya

“Please find me a replacement... Please, I have children... Please, because I am a woman in Tripoli... Please, I have worked honorably for ten years... Thank you in advance, S. Stanković..”

With these words, Slađana Stanković, an official at the Serbian embassy in Tripoli, addressed the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from Libya for years, and was ultimately killed on February 19th after spending more than 100 days in the hands of her captors.

She wrote in the last few years. She first did so in 2012, and then more intensely during 2014 and 2015. The reasons in her pleas, to which she received no answers or solutions, multiplied over the years. She was abducted in November last year, died in February this year, and was buried three days ago.

In May 2014, Slađana begged officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to find her a replacement as soon as possible, in July or August, so she could return home. Each plea repeated the same sentence – this is not the first time I am stating my reasons.

In every letter, Slađana first mentioned her family.

“I have been alone since 2011 because my family was evacuated with other citizens. This causes me great problems because my children are 10 and 14 years old... I am unable to bring them here due to school and safety... Three years of separation from minor daughters is too much, and at this moment they need their mother,” Slađana pleaded.

The same year, she wrote that security incidents happen very often in Tripoli, and she is a woman.

“I have fulfilled my obligations to the embassy and the state honorably and honestly, but my obligation is also to fulfill them to my family... All of this are sufficient arguments for my request that someone replace me after almost nine years of work and over three years of separation from my children,” Slađana wrote in 2014.

The tragically deceased mother of minor children wrote as an argument for her request to be granted the fact that she received the highest grades and praise for her work from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She thought highly of her colleagues. She was “lucky to work in a team that is united in facing problems and great security challenges, which is the most valuable thing that will remain in my memory from this service in Tripoli.”

Slađana believed that her minor children and her honest work to date were sufficient for her request to be granted.

Slađana Stanković, a communications officer at the Serbian Embassy in Libya, sent letters for three years requesting a replacement. For example, when the conflict broke out in Ukraine, staff at the embassy there who requested to leave the country in conflict were, as “Blic” learns, replaced literally within days.

Killed after 4 months of captivity

Slađana Stanković was abducted with her colleague Jovica Stepić on November 8, 2015. They lost their lives after nearly four full months in captivity. The Serbian government claims they were killed in an American bombing of an ISIL camp in Sabratha, 60 kilometers west of Tripoli.

The Pentagon states that American planes did not bomb the location that Serbian authorities provided to the US as the place where the abductors were holding embassy officials.