-Caveat Lector- U.S. Citizens Found in Serbia Grave http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010713/aponline092000_000.htm By Dragan Ilic Associated Press Writer Friday, July 13, 2001; 9:20 a.m. EDT NIS, Yugoslavia -- Documents on the bodies of three males found in a mass grave in eastern Serbia indicate they were U.S. citizens of ethnic Albanian origin, an official said Friday. However, a forensic examination will be required to verify their identity, the official, a member of a forensics team investigating the grave in Petrovo Selo, told The Associated Press. The mass grave was discovered recently about 120 miles east of the capital, Belgrade, and has been linked to Slobodan Milosevic's campaign to cover up Kosovo atrocities. The former Yugoslav president was indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for atrocities carried out against non-Serbs in Kosovo and was extradited to the Netherlands-based court on June 28. Papers found on the three men identify them as brothers - Agron, Mehmet and Yli Bytyqi - born in Chicago in 1978, 1976 and 1974 respectively, the source said on condition of anonymity. The brothers lived in New York City and their mother and sister lived in Prizren in western Kosovo, the source said. The southern Yugoslav province has been run by NATO since June 1999, when the alliance ended 78 days of airstrikes that punished Milosevic's regime for its crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. The bodies of the three men were lying atop a heap containing remains of 13 other ethnic Albanians in a ditch located on the fringes of a special police compound in Petrovo Selo, the source said. An adjacent collective grave contained 59 more bodies, bringing the total at the site to 75. The position of the three - the only ones who were blindfolded, their hands tied with wire - points to the likelihood that they were killed nearby, the source said. The men were dressed in civilian clothes and were shot at close range. A Serbian court document dated June 27, 1999, also was found on the brothers, indicating they were sentenced to 15 days in jail for entering the country illegally, the official told AP. The document ordered them sent to a penitentiary in Prokuplje, just north of Kosovo province. The Belgrade-based office of the U.N. tribunal, whose experts are allowed to observe mass grave exhumations, said it could not confirm the identity of the men to AP. A spokeswoman in the U.S. State Department's European affairs office said only that the United States "encourages the Serbian authorities to fully investigate the mass graves." "We also encourage the Serbian authorities to work closely with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in their investigation and to hold accountable those responsible for war crimes," the spokeswoman said. A report about the three men first appeared Wednesday in the Reporter weekly, which claimed they were arrested on the Kosovo-Serbian border. The newspaper said the three Americans were fighting with pro-independence ethnic Albanian rebels in the so-called "Atlantic Brigade" consisting of up to 400 men before they were executed by Serbian security forces. Pro-democracy officials who took over after Milosevic's ouster from power last October have accused the ex-president of ordering his associates to cover up evidence of war crimes in Kosovo. They allege that Milosevic tried to hide the atrocities by ordering some 800 bodies to be buried in Serbia in locations far from the Kosovo province. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
