US arrests 26 Bosnian Serbs
2006-12-16 10:18
Washington - US authorities have
arrested 26 Bosnian Serbs in the past week and accused a number
of them of taking part in the 1995 massacre of 8 000 Muslims in
the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, The Washington Post reported on
Saturday.
The suspects had allegedly concealed their service in the
Bosnian Serb military when they applied for refugee status.
They were arrested in at least eight cities, including Denver
and Orlando, Florida, and were charged with visa fraud, perjury
or making false statements, the newspaper said.
It said the arrests were part of an intensified effort by
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to root out
unacknowledged members of the Bosnian Serb military using data
supplied by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia, located in The Hague.
"Only a few of those arrested here are accused by the
Justice Department of directly taking part in the Srebrenica
killings, but all allegedly were in units that did," the Post
said.
The Srebrenica massacre, in the final stages of the
1992-1995 Bosnian war, is considered Europe's worst war crime
since World War Two.
Previous immigration roundups led to the arrests of 24
Bosnian Serbs in Phoenix and Salt Lake City, Utah, in September
2005 and June 2006.
Julie Myers, assistant secretary of homeland security for
ICE, told the Post in a statement that her office "will not
allow the United States to be a safe haven for those who failed
to disclose their service in military forces that were known to
commit atrocities."