The US Department of Homeland Security has used facial recognition to identify and arrest a Tennessee man who allegedly committed war crimes during the Bosnian war nearly thirty years ago.
The detainee, who for the past 24 years called himself Sead Đukić, was actually Sead Miljkovic, an alleged war criminal long wanted by the Bosnia-Herzegovina authorities for his activities as a member of the army of self-styled Western Bosnia, as published by Forbes.
Although he was able to change his identity, Miljkovic was unable to change his face or fingerprints, allowing authorities to use biometric markers to confirm his real identity. As explained by the US Department of Homeland Security, law enforcement officials have used fingerprint and facial recognition software to match Đukić's US records with Miljkovic's files still held in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The man was arrested just as he was preparing to travel to Cancun with his wife thanks to an Interpol notification that activated his search a month ago. Miljkovic has posted $30,000 bail to be released on probation, pending further court action.
Before proceeding with the arrest, the authorities had been watching his house with agents on the ground and an aviation unit watching from the sky. When investigators entered his home, they seized, among other items, "foreign military material," a Serbian flag, and an itinerary for a flight to Zagreb, Croatia.
It is not clear if Miljkovic will face charges of war crimes, since neither the defendant's lawyer, nor the Department of Homeland Security nor Interpol have shared official information about the case. At a minimum, the detainee will have to respond to the accusations for a crime of documentary falsification.
In 1992 the war broke out in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the last of the armed conflicts that began in the early 1990s after the dissolution of Yugoslavia. This is the last conflict of the last century on European soil, marked by a high degree of violence, a large number of victims and a very complex development. The war in Bosnia officially ended after the signing of the Dayton Agreements by the representatives of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Yugoslavia, on December 14, 1995.
Since then, the country has been healing many wounds, in its attempt to assimilate monstrous memories such as the long siege of Sarajevo, the blowing up of the Mostar bridge or the Srebrenica massacre, the most atrocious episode of "ethnic cleansing" practiced by the Serbs, Croats and Bosniacs (Bosnian Muslims).
