Al-Qaida members detained in Bosnia
sent to Jordan, Egypt for legal action
By Gregory Piatt,
Stars and Stripes
Last week, NATO and its peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina announced that
it detained several members of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network, disrupting the
activities of a terrorist cell in the Balkan country.
Of the four identified, an Egyptian, a Jordanian and two Bosnians, the two foreign
nationals were deported leaving the Bosnians in custody of the government.
So why were the two deported back to the Middle East if the SFOR peacekeeping mission
can arrest war criminals and send them to International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague,
Netherlands?
"That is not inside of our mandate," said Capt. Daryl Morrell, SFOR
spokesman, about why the Egyptian and Jordanian weren’t detained or turned over to
the West.
According to the Dayton peace agreement, peacekeepers, in the course of their duties,
can detain those indicted for war crimes in Balkans and then hand them over to the Hague
tribunal.
Other people caught committing crimes or creating an unsafe environment are turned over
to Bosnian authorities for prosecution.
"SFOR is not able to lay charges," Morrell told reporters at a press
conference in Sarajevo on Friday.
"The only competent organization for laying charges is the government inside of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, inside of the entities [the Muslim-Croat Federation or Serb
Republic].
"So when we turn individuals that SFOR has detained over to the Bosnia and
Herzegovina authorities it is quite clearly their choice in terms of what action they
chose to take."
But the government chose not to charge the Egyptian and Jordanian and deported them, a
NATO official told the Stars and Stripes.
"They didn't want any part of them," the official said on the condition of
anonymity.
When ask if SFOR, which has 18,000 peacekeepers, including 3,100 U.S. troops, was
satisfied that the Federation deported them, Morrell said, "yes."
"As I understand it, there are proceedings underway in Jordan and Egypt with those
two individuals…," Morrell added.
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