Veran Matic investigates Bytyqi brothers case

Veran Matic investigates Bytyqi brothers case

This topic can hardly be avoided, since the fate of the Bytyqi brothers has been on the agenda every time in the last 15 years when Serbian politicians went on official visits to United States. The case could not be avoided by interlocutors from Belgrade who visited the United States, whether they were parliamentary delegations, ministers, foreign ministers or prime ministers.

Knowing that he cannot avoid such a conversation, Vucic rushed to, on the eve of his trip, establish a commission for shedding light on the murder of Agron (23), Mehmet (21) and Ylli (25) Bytyqi. He announced that he called on B92 TV News Editor-in-Chief Veran Matic to assist in the work of this commission. This choice will make the talks in Washington easier for Vucic, considering that Matic, beside his experience at the head of a commission formed to shed light on murders of journalists where remarkable progress has been made in the case of Curuvija, is also considered to be a man close to the Americans.

Veran Matic, however, refused to comment for Politika on the news that he was appointed as a special investigator.

The reason why the United States is particularly interested in this case lies in the fact that the Bytyqi brothers were U.S. citizens, as they were born on the outskirts of Chicago. The U.S. government is persistent in its request that this case be resolved and the culprits convicted, because it is bound by a resolution of the Congress, which is subjected to pressure by Albanian lobbies.

Considering that they were killed in July 1999, i.e., after the signing of the Kumanovo Agreement, which ended the NATO intervention against Serbia, the attitude of America is that this was not a war crime, but a case of premeditated murder.

The Bytyqi brothers, who were fighters of the Atlantic Brigade of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), were killed under so far unclear circumstances in Petrovo Selo near Kladovo, while their bodies were found in a mass grave among the corpses of another 67 Albanians buried at a local police training ground. A pathologist of the FBI found that they were killed with bullets fired to the back of their heads, while their hands were tied.

The trouble for the Bytyqi brothers began when they were arrested while crossing the administrative border between Serbia and Kosovo, in order to allegedly help a Roma family of Miroslav Mitrovic move. The stated reason for the arrest was that they violated the law on the movement of foreigners, because they had no identification documents. According to recent findings, they spent 12 days in a prison in Prokuplje. When released from prison, they were taken through the back gate, where they were met by a white car with two unidentified police officers in plain clothes. From there they were transferred to a base of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit of the MUP of Serbia and were two days later killed under unknown circumstances.

Among the suspects for these murders, based on command and other responsibilities, the media mentioned the former chief of the Public Security Department of the Serbian MUP Vlastimir Djordjevic, for the unlawful arrest of the brothers, who after the murder took refuge in Russia. Then Commander of the Gendarmerie General Goran Radosavljevic Guri has also been mentioned. However, he claims to have been out hunting with a friend on the day of the murders.

The Court of Appeal has acquitted two officers, Sreten Popovic and Milos Stojanovic, who were accused of torturing the Bytyqi brothers and of indirect involvement in the killings.