US arrests 26 Bosnian Serbs -report

WASHINGTON, Dec 16 (Reuters) 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 today.

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.'' REUTERS LL DS1255