headland

Nine Bosnian officials have been indicted for illegally allowing hundreds of foreign Islamic fighters to gain Bosnian citizenship after the 1992-95 war. According to the police officials who announced the charges in Sarajevo on Wednesday, the abuses of power occurred between 1995 and 1997, when fighters of African and Asian origin, who had fought with local Muslim troops against Serb and Croat forces, were illegally allowed to become Bosnian citizens. The names and positions of the officials charged were not released.

Robert Cvrtak, spokesperson for the Federation Police Administration, signaled that more indictments are in the offing. "The case," Cvrtak declared, "is part of a wider probe into the naturalization of 741 Arabs who obtained Bosnian citizenship illegally." Report of the announcement appeared on the web site of the Bosnian news agency ONASA, and was translated into English by the BBC Monitoring International Reports ("Bosnian Officials Indicted for Granting Citizenship to Foreign Islamic Fighters," November 25, 2004). According to an official source, Bosnian prosecutors are preparing indictments against 100 of the foreigners whose Bosnian citizenships are expected to be revoked. The mujahideen who entered Bosnia during the war against the Serbs and Croats were required to leave the country under the Dayton peace agreement, yet many are known to have remained.

Related headland stories:

• "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Linked to Bosnian Islamists" (November 24, 2004) [Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the reported "mastermind" of the 9/11 attacks, obtained a Bosnian citizenship certificate in 1994 and a Bosnian passport soon thereafter.]
• "Bodansky: Al-Qaeda-Linked Terrorists Active in Bosnia" (October 28, 2004) [Yossef Bodansky, a noted terrorism expert, told the Serbian daily Glas Srpske that a terrorist network, answering to Osama bin Laden, is active in Bosnia-Hercegovina.]

Labels: al Qaeda, Al-Qa'idah, Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaida, Bosnia, Croatia, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Serbia, Yossef Bodansky

Agence France Presse and BBC Monitoring International Reports report that Yossef Bodansky, a noted terrorism expert, has told the Serbian daily Glas Srpske that a terrorist network, answering to Osama bin Laden, is active in Bosnia-Hercegovina. [Ed.: Bodansky has steadfastly insisted that OBL is still alive.]

According to Bodansky, director of the Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the U.S. Congress and author of The Secret History of the Iraq War, terrorists responsible for bombing the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad last year were trained near Zenica in central Bosnia and then sent to Iraq via Italy.

Bodansky claimed that cells used Bosnia as a training ground and gateway to send terrorists to western Europe or to hide those who had arrest warrants issued for them in the West, before they were transferred to the East. Bodansky also claimed that terrorists captured in a series of raids in London this year had conceded to having links with Bosnia-Hercegovina. Bodansky, who met with Bosnian officials last week, complained: "Representatives of the international community in Bosnia and (local) authorities are aware of this, but they do not work enough to fight international terrorism."

Labels: Bosnia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Iraq, Osama bin Laden, Serbia, United Nations, Yossef Bodansky