http://www.boston.com/news/local/massac ... ion_fraud/

Alleged war criminal on trial for immigration fraud
By Denise Lavoie, AP Legal Affairs Writer | June 27, 2006

BOSTON --A Bosnian immigrant charged with concealing his military past to get into the United States went on trial on immigration fraud charges Tuesday, as a prosecutors described in chilling detail how he allegedly helped in a massacre of more than 1,000 Muslims at Srebrenica.

Marko Boskic was living in Peabody and working as a construction worker when he was charged in 2004 with five counts of lying to federal officials so he could emigrate to the United States.

During opening statements, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Auerhahn said Boskic was one of the soldiers in the Serbian military's 10th Sabotage Detachment who boarded Muslim men and boys onto buses, drove them to a field outside Srebrenica, lined them up in groups of 10 and shot them with automatic weapons.

Auerhahn said less than a handful of people survived the massacre. Two of the survivors, who hid under bodies until the soldiers left, will testify during the trial, he said.

"They will be reunited with that man, Marko Boskic," Auerhahn said, pointing to Boskic in the courtroom.

Auerhahn said Boskic referred to the killings as "liquidation."

Boskic gave false answers on applications when he applied to come to the United States, including failing to reveal his military service and saying he had never persecuted anyone on the basis of their religion or ethnicity, prosecutors allege

Boskic's lawyer, Max Stern, told the jury that Boskic, a Croatian, was held in a Serbian concentration camp for about six months in 1994 and was released only on the condition that he join the Serb's 10th Sabotage Detachment. Stern said a commander ordered Boskic to participate in the massacre, and when he refused, the officer threatened to kill him.

"He did it because a gun was put to his head and he was told, 'You do it or you will be shot,'" Stern said.