By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States of America – United States officials are seeking to deport hundreds of Bosnian immigrants, whom are believed to have been invovled in war crimes during the 1992-95 war. The Bosnian War killed more than 100,000 people and displaced two million others after the breakup of Yugoslavia. Officials have identified an estimated 300 immigrants suspected of having concealed wartime atrocities when they came to the United States. During the wave of Bosnian immigrants to the United States, more than 120,000 Bosnians sought US visas. During this time, little effort was made on behalf of the United Sattes government to check the backgrounds of these immigrants.

In 2008, the United States immigration agency set up a war crimes section, which has investigated immigrants from former conflcit zones, including: Ethopia, Rawnda, El Salvador, Guatemala and other global hot spots. However, no conflict has gained as much detention as the Bosnian war.

Now, investigators are giving much attention to those who arrived in the United States following the Bosnian War. Michael McQueen, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement historian, told the New York Times, “the more we dig. The more documents we find,” “the idea that the people who did all this damage in Bosnia should have a free pass and a new shot at life is just obscene to me.” U.S. officials are making an effort to identify suspects, urging witnesses to come forward with any information pertinent to the war crimes. However investigations have proven to be complicated, due to a lack of available expenses necessary for fees such as travel and translation.

Federal officials have built cases against immigrants from New York to Oregon. Suspects include: a metal worker in Ohio, four casino staff in Las Vegas, and a woman located in Kentucky who had been a guard at a military detention center in Bosnia. The woman, Azra Basic, has been jailed and faces extradition on charges that she tortured detainees, allegedly forcing them to drink gasoline and human blood.

Kathleen O’Conner, a human rights prosecutor at the Department of Justice, has stated, “justice can be served in the United States despite the fact that many yeas have gone by and that the conduct occurred overseas, far away.”

 

For more information, please see the following:

BBC – US Moves to Deport 150 Bosnians Over War Crimes – 1 Mar. 2015.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES –US Immigrants Suspected of Bosnian War Crimes Could Be Deported – 28 Feb 2015.

NEW YORK TIMES – U.S. Seeks to Deport Bosnians Over War Crimes – 28 Feb. 2015.

REUTERS – U.S. Moving to Deport Bosnians Over War Crimes: NYT – 28 Feb. 2015