One man’s hunt for his brothers’ killers
Two weeks after the end of hostilities in Kosovo, three young Albanian-Americans who had joined the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) were arrested by Yugoslav police, tortured and killed. Eighteen years later, the conflict has been largely forgotten, but the men’s youngest brother continues a lonely fight for justice.
Towards the end of June 1999, Ylli, Agron and Mehmet Bytyqi (pronounced Bootoochee) were escorting a Roma family out of Kosovo to the Serbian border. It was a act of kindness. The Bytyqi brothers – whose parents knew the family well – were guaranteeing their safety up to Kosovo’s border with Serbia, since many ethnic Albanians viewed Roma with suspicion.
