Death of the Bytyqi brothers

The Bytyqi brothers were three American-Kosovo Albanians killed by Serb police shortly after the end of the war in Kosovo, while they were in custody in Petrovo Selo, Serbia. The bodies of the three brothers were discovered in July 2001 in a mass grave containing 70 Albanians in rural Petrovo Selo, Serbia, near a Serbian police facility. The bodies were found with their hands bound and with gunshot wounds to their heads. The indictment against the alleged perpetrators says the brothers were brought to the edge of the pit and shot in the head, causing them to slump into a mass grave atop 70 corpses dumped there earlier. ^[1]

Agron (23), Mehmet (21) and Ylli (25) were American citizens of Kosovo Albanian origin born in Chicago, Illinois and living in New York. After the war started in Kosovo they decided to go to Kosovo and fight in KLA's “Atlantic Brigade”.

In July 1999, and immediately after the NATO campaign in the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ended and the Kumanovo Agreement was signed, they helped their neighbors - а Roma family from Prizren (Kosovo) - to return to Kraljevo (Central Serbia), from where they escaped during the war. Due to a violation of the Law on Movement and Residence of Foreigners, they were arrested along the transit between Kosovo (staffed by UNMIK) and Central Serbia (staffed by authorities of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). They were sentenced to 15 days in prison. Twelve days later after appealing, they were released. Their neighbour Miroslav waited to collect them, but the brothers were instead collected by two men driving a white car with no license plates. They were taken to the MUP Special antiterroristic unit (SAJ) base. Two days later, they were killed with bullets fired to the back of their heads, and buried in a mass grave already containing the bodies of the murdered Kosovo Albanians. ^[2]

The investigation

Yugoslav authorities showed little interest to investigate cases where Serbian police has acted during the war in Kosovo, but since the brothers were American citizens and due to the pressure from US authorities, an investigation was launched. The United States saw the murder of the Bytyqi brothers as a premeditated crime committed against its citizens; the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) started an investigation while the US Embassy in Belgrade monitored the case carefully.

The main suspect was Vlastimir Đordević, head of MUP’s Public Security and Serbia's assistant minister for internal affairs during the Kosovo war. Đordevic was the commander of the MUP forces in Kosovo in the early 1980s, and one of the most trusted men of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević. In July 1999, Miloševic awarded Đordevic the Medal of the Yugoslav Flag of the First Degree. He was forced into retirement in May 2001, when the cold storage truck containing the bodies of Kosovo Albanians was discovered in the Danube. Đordevic is also wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Before the investigation started, Đordevic relocated to Moscow, Russia and since refuses to return.

The killing of Bytyqi brothers is still being investigated by Serbia's War Crimes Court. Milos Stojanović and Sreten Popović, high-ranking police officials, have been on trial since November as alleged accomplices in the murder of the Bytyqi brothers, but were temporarily released from jail in April 2007. In mid-February, the police issued the warrant for Goran Radosavljević, known by his nom de guerre "Guri", after he failed to show up at a trial of two former Serbian commandos charged in the murders of the Bytyqi brothers. According to the Serbian media, Radosavljevic left Serbia in 2006 ^[3] Four more officers were detained in late February as the investigation about who exactly ordered and carried out the executions continues. ^{[2] [1] [4]}. Milenko Arsenijevic, commander of an elite special police unit and three police officers ^[5].

In March 2007, the US Embassy in Belgrade said the U.S. Department of Justice will continue to conduct its own investigation pursuant to U.S. law^[6].

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Defendants in murder trial of 3 Albanian Americans temporarily released - International Herald Tribune
2. ^ ^{a b} B92 - The Bytyqi Case
3. ^ JUSTWATCH-L archives - February 2007 (#314)
4. ^ Gruesome details emerge in Serbian mass grave cover up of Kosovo war crimes - International Herald Tribune
5. ^ New Kosova Report - Home
6. ^ U.S. Embassy Welcomes Progress in Bytyqi Case, March 1, 2007

See also

• War crimes in the Kosovo War
• Serbian war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars

External links

• The Bytyqi Case - Crime and Secret
• US Embassy in Belgrade