Kosovo leaders hail US resolution on 3 slain Americans

PRISTINA, Kosovo – Kosovo’s leaders have welcomed a U.S. House of Representatives resolution regretting that Serbia has not brought to justice the killers of three Americans slain after fighting in Kosovo in 1999.

The resolution passed Tuesday also deplored Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s alleged failure to take action on the case.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and outgoing Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj called on Serb authorities Wednesday “not to hide evidence and criminals.”

The Bytyqi brothers, Ylli, Mehmet and Agron, left their New York pizza business to fight with ethnic Albanian rebels against Serbia’s rule in Kosovo.

Serbian forces arrested them at the end of the clashes in 1999, and their bodies were discovered in a mass grave in eastern Serbia in 2001.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, not recognized by Belgrade.