Bosnia called haven for terrorists, but
military officials see no immediate threat
By Ward Sanderson,
Stars and Stripes
While the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina investigates media claims that Islamic
terrorists use the country as a training ground and hideout, military officials deny any
immediate threat and avoid stoking ethnic fires.
The terrorist attacks in the United States have fueled rumors that Osama bin
Laden’s network is entrenched in Bosnia, and international peacekeepers are loath to
ignite them.
"We’re monitoring a number of groups to make sure they don’t obstruct a
safe and secure environment," said Maj. Rob Palmer, spokesman for the U.S.-patrolled
sector of Bosnia. "If the fundamentalist Muslims that live in our sector continue to
live peacefully, I don’t have any problems."
Pockets of former mujahedin — foreign fighters who came to Bosnia during
its civil war to fight for Islam — are the skeptics’ biggest gripe. Although the
Dayton Peace Accords required mercenaries to leave the country in 1995, Bosnia already had
issued passports to foreign veterans.
Many mujahedin remain.
There are about 420 naturalized Arabs in Bosnia, according to the Ministry of Civil
Affairs and Communications. Miodrag Pandurevic, assistant chief of the ministry, said a
previous review of passports resulted in none being revoked. Pandurevic said any suspicion
of links to terrorism will be investigated.
Karen Williams, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, said she could not
comment on whether terrorists are believed to be active in the country. However, an
Interpol official said there has been a flurry of contact between Bosnia and the United
States since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"Contacts are intensified for the well-known reasons," the official said.
"More information is circulating between us and Washington."
However, he said, Interpol checks did not suggest that anyone in Bosnia participated in
those attacks.
The chief spokesman for the international Stabilization Force denied that the
fundamentalists are a threat. Instead, Canadian forces Capt. Daryl Morrell lambasted
racism and terrorism in general. Morrell described the mujahedin as retired
soldiers who have since married local women, started businesses and settled down.
"Regardless of nationality, ethnicity or religion, SFOR is concerned with acts of
terrorism," Morrell said. "Acts of terrorism are abhorrent in all parts of the
world ... our concern is with terrorists or with those who support terrorists."
Peacekeepers nonetheless have run into trouble in mujahedin enclaves, such as
the town of Bocinja Donja.
Last year, Stars and Stripes reported that Norwegian Brig. Gen. Kjell Grandhagen was
threatened by two foreign-born men in Bocinja Donja. The men pushed Grandhagen aside and
attacked a Serb refugee whom peacekeepers were attempting to escort. Another man
threatened Grandhagen with a knife. He escaped unharmed.
Other peacekeepers, including a British general, have complained that mujahedin
has menaced them by making throat-slashing gestures.
In April, police arrested convicted terrorist Said Atmani near Sarajevo on an Interpol
warrant. France convicted Atmani in absentia on conspiracy charges. Officials say he is a
document forger and operative for both the Algerian GIA, or Armed Islamic Group, and bin
Laden.
Bosnia deported Atmani to France this summer.
Canadian officials have said Atmani is a former roommate of Ahmed Ressam, the Algerian
convicted of trying to smuggle explosives into Washington state shortly before millennial
celebrations.
International officials fear that Serb and Croat factions are using these very real
incidents to create a disproportionate panic.
Bosnian news outlets recently ran reports alleging that bin Laden held a Bosnian
passport and that his men also used the country as a haven for training camps. The
government vowed to investigate terror claims and Serb and Croat nationalists stepped up
anti-Islamic rhetoric.
International officials deny there is evidence of such camps. The government also
denied granting bin Laden a passport.
Nationalists are unmoved.
The Croat Christian Democrats wrote a letter to Bosnia’s international overseer,
Wolfgang Petritsch, demanding action and denouncing Bosnian Muslims for alleged coddling
of foreign terrorists in the country. It even hinted that dark forces in Sarajevo
supported terror strikes in New York and Washington, D.C.
The letter claimed Bosnia was now a "shelter of murderers" and that
international officials are blind to "the support offered by the [Bosnian] Taliban in
Sarajevo to their brothers for the darkest crimes in the U.S.A."
Ivana Avramovic contributed to this story from Bosnia.
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