[A-PAL] A-PAL NEWSLETTER 7/14/01

[Alice Mead]

  A-PAL NEWSLETTER
JULY 14, 2001

           For two years, no one knew the whereabouts of the missing 
Bytiqi brothers. It was assumed by many Albanians that they were 
being detained in Serb prisons, along with the other Albanian 
prisoners. The reason for this was that people knew they had been 
arrested in late June, 1999, after the NATO war, and accused of 
illegally crossing the border into Serbia. But as prisoners began to 
be released from Serb prisons, none of them knew any details 
regarding the whereabouts of these American citizens. Inquiries from 
the Office of Political Prisoners in Prishtina produced no answers or 
even replies. But then, Serb Ministry of Justice officials never 
notify Albanian  families when their imprisoned relatives are 
transfered, released, ill, or even dead. When Albanian prisoners are 
transfered inside Serbia, family members in Kosova scramble 
frantically, trying to get word of mouth information on where their 
relatives have gone. So people hoped the Bytiqi brothers were being 
held in some military prison someplace. People hold out the same 
probably false hopes for another missing prisoner, who was released 
and then disappeared on May 16, 1999--Professor Ukshin Hoti.

     A-PAL thanks HLC for their unending efforts at uncovering these 
painful truths. We would like to ask the Humanitarian Law Center to 
also investigate the disappearance of Ukshin Hoti from Dubrava 
Prison, May, 1999. His family members desperately need answers too.
     _______________________________________________________


From: Humanitarian Law Center
            Belgrade

Tell the Mother the Truth
11 july 2001

The Humanitarian Law Center calls on the Serbian Ministries of 
Justice and Internal Affairs to clarify the fate of the three Bityqi 
brothers who disappeared on 8 July 1999 in Serbia and whose remains, 
according to the Reporter magazine, were found in a mass grave in 
Petrovo Selo, eastern Serbia.  For two years, since she last saw them 
on 26 June 1999 when they left Prizren for Serbia with her Roma 
neighbors, their mother Bahrije has been trying without success to 
trace her sons.
Ylli, Agron and Mehmet Bityqi, US citizens of Kosovo Albanian 
descent, were released from the District Prison in Prokuplje on 8 
July 1999, four days before serving out the 15-day term to which they 
were sentenced for illegal entry into Serbia.  The prison authorities 
handed them over to two plainclothes police officers, after which 
they disappeared.
Borning in Chikago, lived in Newyork, and came to Kosovo in mid-June 
1999 to visit with their mother in Prizren.  She introduced them to 
Miroslav Mitrovi_ and Lubija and Vazdit Minushi, her Roma neighbors. 
Fearing for their lives in Prizren, the three Roma had decided to 
flee to Serbia.  As they were afraid to travel by themselves, the 
Bitiqi brothers offered to drive them to the Serbian boundary.
The group left Prizren in the morning of 26 June.  In Pri_tina, they 
were stopped by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) who, 
Miroslav Mitrovi_ stated, verbally abused the Bityqis for aiding Roma 
and seized their US passports.  In spite of this incident, the Bityqi 
brothers decided to continue.  They reached Merdare near Podujevo 
where they were stopped at a police checkpoint.  The Bityqis were 
arrested while the three Roma were allowed into Serbia.  That same 
day, Ylli, Agron and Mehmet Bityqi were taken before a magistrate in 
the town of Kur_umlija, who sentenced them to 15 days in jail for 
illegally crossing the boundary.  They were transferred to the 
District Prison in Prokuplje on 27 June where they were questioned 
several times by Inspector Zoran Stankovi_ of the foreign nationals' 
division.  Aleksandar Djordjevi_, the prison warden, said Inspector 
Stankovi_ told him he would take custody of the Bityqis on 8 July, 
four days before their sentence ran out.  The warden therefore issued 
a provisional release order, No. 11/99.  The prison administration 
wrote up a report on the return to the Bityqis of confiscated 
belongings: three belts, three pairs of shoelaces, one wrist watch, 
one wallet, a pair of earrings, a bracelet, one driver's license, and 
three KLA tags.  With these two papers and their belongings, Ylli, 
Agron and Mehmet were led outside the prison at about noon and handed 
over to two plainclothes officers.  An hour later, Miroslav Mitrovi_ 
came to the prison to inquire about his friends and learned that they 
had been taken away, supposedly to be transferred back to Kosovo.
The HLC wrote to Warden Aleksandar Djordjevi_ on 19 August 1999 and 
on 27 August received from him a copy of the provisional release 
order for the Bityqis.  The HLC on three occasions addressed the 
Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs in connection with the brothers' 
disappearance - on 3 September, 20 September and 4 October 1999. 
There was no response.
At the time of the Bityqis' disappearance, the head of the Serbian 
Ministry of Internal Affairs Public Security Division was Vlastimir 
Djordjevi_, Milovan Vu_i_evi_ was Chief of Police for the Prokuplje 
municipality, Milisav Vu_kovi_ was the police chief, and Zoran 
Stankovi_ an inspector for foreign nationals' affairs.

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