Iowa Man Lied About Bosnian War Crimes To Gain Entry To US: Feds

ASBURY, IA — The federal government took steps Thursday to strip a Bosnian refugee living in northeast Iowa of his citizenship for allegedly lying about his involvement in war crimes to gain entrance to the United States in the 1990s. The Justice Department filed paperwork that would allow immigration authorities to deport Eso Razic, 51. His last known address is in Asbury, Iowa, where he operated a small trucking company.

Razic is a native of the former Yugoslavia and subsequently a citizen of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is accused of killing three people, including a wounded prisoner of war, and participating in paramilitary organizations during the 1990s Balkans Conflict — a criminal past he concealed when he applied for refugee status in 1998 and that would have prevented him from coming to the United States, the government said.

When Razic was asked on immigration forms if he had engaged in genocide or killed anyone because of their political affiliation or religion, he answered “no,” according to court documents.

Instead, he claimed that he lost his home and hairdressing shop in the war and had been beaten in a detention camp.

Bosnia's 1992-95 war pitted the main ethnic communities — Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs — against one another during the bloody breakup of the Yugoslav federation. For the majority of the conflict, Bosniaks and Croats were allies against the Serbs, but in 1993 they fought a short but brutal war between themselves.

Razic was, until then, a member of the Croat Defense Council, where authorities say he participated in the killing of a wounded Serb prisoner of war, according to court documents. When the Bosniak-Croat alliance fell apart, the documents say, Razic turned on his former Croat comrades and killed two of them.

The complaint against Razic, who became a U.S. citizen in 2004, was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

Derek Benner, deputy executive director of ICE/HSI, said in a statement the United States “will not serve as a safe haven for those who have committed such atrocities and then fled from justice.”

“This denaturalization filing demonstrates the U.S. government’s enduring commitment to identify and bring to justice those who have committed human rights violations in any part of the world,” he said.

It’s unclear how authorities discovered Razic.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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