The American Embassy in Belgrade called on Serbia on Friday to shed light on the murder and hold responsible the perpetrators of the murder of the three Bytyqi brothers, American citizens, in 1999.
In a press release from the American embassy it is said "today marks 23 years since the three American citizens, Ylli, Agron and Mehmet Bytyqi, were executed in the detention units of the Serbian special police. Another year has passed and the grieving Bytyqi family has not found an answer. Another year and the Serbian justice system still has not held anyone accountable for this terrible war crime," the communiqué states, underlining that "we will not forget this crime and call on Serbia once again to hold it accountable those who committed and hid the murder".
The three Bytyqi brothers were members of the former Kosovo Liberation Army, namely the Atlantic battalion, composed of Albanians living in the United States, who joined the war in Kosovo. In July 1999, they were arrested under unknown circumstances by Serbian forces near the border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia in Merdara.
A court in the city of Prokuple in Serbia sentenced them to 15 days of imprisonment under charges of, as it was said, illegal crossing of the border of the former Yugoslavia.
Their bodies were found in a mass grave in Petrovo Selo in eastern Serbia, at a base controlled by units commanded by former Serbian police general Goran Radosavlevich, known as Guri. They were handcuffed and shot in the head.
In December 2018, the US Department of State banned the entry into the United States of the former Serbian police general, Goran Radosavlevich-Guri, against whom, as stated in the announcement, there is reliable evidence that he was involved in the murder of Bytyqi brothers./VOA