Serb Ex-Commander to Testify in Bytyqi Trial

Belgrade | 17 April 2009 |

ICTY

A former Serbian police commander on trial at the UN war crimes court has agreed to testify in a separate case over the 1999 execution-style murder of three Albanian-American brothers, a judge says.

The bodies of the brothers, Illy, Mehmet and Agron Bytyqi, were found bound and blindfolded in a mass grave in 2001, two years after they had left their New York pizza business to join Kosovo rebels fighting for secession from Serbia.

The testimony from police Gen. Vlastimir Djordjevic, who commanded operations in Kosovo during the 1998-99 war, is considered crucial to the slow-moving case for justice in their deaths.

Two policemen charged with murder for handing the brothers over to Serb paramilitaries have pleaded not guilty, saying they were only following Djordjevic's orders in transporting the three.

Belgrade Judge Vesko Krstajic said Djordjevic would testify next month via a video link or be questioned by a Serbian judge at the UN court in The Hague, where Djordjevic is being tried separately over his units' alleged wartime atrocities.

The United States has demanded quick justice for the Bytyqi brothers' deaths, and has expressed frustration with the slow investigation.

The brothers left the US in 1999 to join the so-called Atlantic Brigade of about 400 Albanian-Americans fighting on the side of Kosovo's independence-seeking rebels. After NATO ended its airstrikes aimed at halting a Serb crackdown, the brothers strayed outside of Kosovo's unmarked boundary and were arrested in central Serbia on June 26, 1999.

They spent 15 days in a Serb jail for illegally crossing the border, and upon their release were taken to eastern Serbia and allegedly summarily executed. Their bodies were discovered in a mass grave with their hands tied with wires and eyes blindfolded.

The two Serb policemen on trial are charged with murder for handing the three brothers over to Serb paramilitaries who allegedly shot and killed them.

No one has been charged with the actual shooting, as members of the former special police unit involved have collectively refused to reveal the identity of the possible culprits. Djordjevic is among those believed to know who the shooters are.

Kosovo declared independence last year, which Serbia refuses to recognise.