Bosnian immigrants charged with massacre

SEATTLE, April 14 (UPI) -- Bosnian immigrants living in Washington and Oregon face extradition for alleged war crimes against Croatians during the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Edin Dzeko 39, a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Everett, Wash., was arrested Wednesday and appeared before a federal magistrate in Seattle, The Seattle Times reported. Federal authorities in Oregon arrested Rasema Handanovic, 39, a Bosnian woman living in Beaverton.

Dzeko and Handanovic allegedly served in a Bosnian army unit that attacked the village of Trusina in southern Bosnia in April 1993, killing 16 Croatian civilians and four unarmed soldiers, officials say. Bosnian Muslims and Croatians, earlier allied against the Serbs, turned against each other in the later phases of the civil war.

David Gehrke, Dzeko's lawyer, said his client is a victim of a misidentification. Bosnian authorities say he was a senior member of the unit involved in the massacre at Trusina.

A magistrate scheduled a status conference on Gehrke's case for April 27.