[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 11311]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          JUSTICE FROM SERBIA

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, 15 years ago this week three American 
citizens--the brothers Ylli, Agron and Mehmet Bytyqi--were transferred 
from a prison to an Interior Ministry camp in Eastern Serbia. At that 
camp, they were executed and buried in a mass grave with dozens of 
Albanians from Kosovo.
  Today, I again call upon the Serbian authorities to bring those 
responsible for these murders to justice. Belgrade has given us 
assurances in recent years that action will be taken, but no clear 
steps have actually been taken to apprehend and prosecute those known 
to have been in command of the camp or the forces operating there.
  The three Bytyqi brothers went to Kosovo in 1999, a time of conflict 
and NATO intervention. Well after an agreed cessation of hostilities in 
early June, the brothers escorted an ethnic Romani family from Kosovo 
to territory still under Serbian control, where that family would be 
safer. Serbian authorities apprehended the brothers as they were 
undertaking this humanitarian task and held them in jail for 15 days 
for illegal entry. When time came for their release, they were instead 
turned over to a special operations unit of the Serbian Interior 
Ministry, transported to the camp and brutally executed. There was no 
due process, no trial, and no opportunity for the brothers to defend 
themselves. There was nothing but the cold-blooded murder of three 
American citizen brothers.
  Serbia today is not the Serbia of 15 years ago. The people of Serbia 
ousted the undemocratic and extreme nationalist regime of Slobodan 
Milosevic in 2000, and the country has since made a steady, if at times 
difficult, transition to democracy and the rule of law. In 2014, Serbia 
began accession talks to join the European Union, and in 2015 it will 
chair the OSCE, a European organization which promotes democratic norms 
and human rights.
  I applaud Serbia on its progress and I support its integration into 
Europe, but I cannot overlook the continued and contrasting absence of 
justice in the Bytyqi case. The new government of Prime Minister 
Aleksandar Vucic has pledged to act. It must now generate the political 
will to act. The protection of those responsible for this crime can no 
longer be tolerated.
  The surviving Bytyqi family deserves to see justice. Serbia itself 
will put a dark past behind it by providing this justice. Serbian-
American relations and Serbia's OSCE chairmanship will be enhanced by 
providing justice. It is time for those responsible for the Bytyqi 
brother murders to lose their protection and to answer for the crimes 
they committed 15 years ago.

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