BOSNIA: INTERVIEW: 

AL-QAEDA NOW SEEKING YOUNG HEARTS AND MINDS

Belgrade, 26 August (AKI) - The al-Qaeda terror network is active in Bosnia and the wider Balkans region, but is changing tactics and primarily fighting for the hearts and minds of the local Muslim population, according to a leading Serbian terrorism expert, Darko Trifunovic, a professor at Belgrade University's civil defence faculty. Training is now being conducted in small groups in elementary schools and sports halls, in the guise of social and sports activities, according to Trifunovic.

“The greatest success of al-Qaeda in Bosnia is that it has managed to radicalise the local Muslim population and has even recruited several Bosnian youths to fight in Iraq, Chechnya and Afghanistan,” Trifunovic told Adnkronos International (AKI) in an interview.

Commenting on recent media reports that al-Qaeda operated secret training camps in Bosnia, Trifunovic, who is also a Serbia and Montenegro researcher for the Washington based Institute for International Strategic Studies (ISS), said that the impact of al-Qaeda's activities in Bosnia has still to be felt.

A report in the Italian Corriere della Sera daily on Thursday seems to lend support to Trifunovic's claim that Islamic extremists are operating in the Balkans. The paper disclosed a recent intelligence operation conducted in the Balkans by Italian secret services in collaboration with Bosnian and Croatian police that uncovered a Wahabi Islamist terror cell based in the eastern Bosnian village of Gornja Maoca, which was apparently plotting terror attacks in Italy. The Wahabi school of thought, the strictest of Sunni Islam, is espoused by al-Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden.

On 3 July, police arrested a convicted criminal with joint Bosnian and Croatian citzenship, known simply as 'RP' in an apartment in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, where 11 missile launchers were found, as well as quantities of the explosive C4 and several detonators which it is alleged were to be used by the Gornja Maoca terror cell. As well as 'RP', four other individuals were arrested in the police swoop.

Police believe the weapons were destined for a Balkans people trafficker,' Mladen R', discovered to have links to the terror cell - which planned to transfer the weapons and explosives to Europe via a human smuggling route through Slovenia and the northeastern Italian port city of Trieste. 'Mladen R' was stopped several times at the Slovenian-Italian border, as he attempted to enter Italy.

Authorities have also established links between the cell and a foiled plot to launch a terror attack on Italy in April, at the time of Pope John Paul II's funeral, when investigations of the Gornja Maoca cell began. An Islamic extremist living in the village was found to have links with Redzematovic Seid, an alleged terrorist belonging to the 'Active Islamic Youth' group, who was arrested on 8 April - the day of Pope John Paul II's funeral. Seid was accused of trying to carry out a suicide attack.

THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IS NOT AWARE OF THE CHANGING TACTICS...THE TRAINING IS BEING CONDUCTED IN SMALL GROUPS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AND SPORTS HALLS, DISGUISED AS SOCIAL AND SPORTS ACTIVITIES."

 “The main purpose is to radicalise local youths - especially those who had lost their parents in the Bosnian civil war - first for logistic support, and ultimately for terrorist actions in Europe,” said Trifunovic. As the international struggle against terrorism is being intensified, al-Qaeda' leaders are realising that they will have to rely on local, European youths, “who because of their non-Arabic look can pass unnoticed”, he explained.

“What we have in Bosnia today is the creation of an embryonic ‘white al-Qaeda’, which might become its main striking force in the future,” Trifunovic said.

Several al-Qaeda messages posted to Islamist websites in the past year have called for the recruitment of 'white' mujahadeen who will be more easily able to wage Jihad in Europe.

“The international community is not aware of the changing tactics, and they imagine some camps surrounded with barbed wire which would shelter several hundred people,” said Trifunovic. “No, the training is being conducted in small groups in elementary schools and sports halls, disguised as social and sports activities”, he stated.

ISS director Gregory Copley claimed this week that Bosnian camps were training “Bosnian Muslim war orphans who are now entering puberty”. Copley told the Bosnian daily Nezavisne novine he had the names of several foreign instructors who operated ‘mobile camps” in Bosnia.

“At the moment, I don’t have many details about the camps, but I do know that in the last few years, the movement of several hundred people from Bosnia towards crisis regions has been noted,” Copley said.

The commander of the international forces in Bosnia (Eufor), David Leaky, said he had “no knowledge” of the existence of any al-Qaeda camps in the country and that his forces would destroy them if they existed. But Trifunovic said Leaky’s phrase “no knowledge” didn’t make a convincing denial.

Trifunovic, who is preparing a report for a world conference on terrorism in Israel on 11 September, said the international community was still not fully aware of the real danger. In his words, the big powers, and especially the US government at the time of the Balkan War (the Clinton adminstration) had ignored and denied the fact that thousands of mujahadeen from Islamic countries were fighting in Bosnia on the side of local Muslims.

“Too many careers in Washington and in European capitals were based on this lie, or omission, whichever you prefer,” Trifunovic said. He pointed out that at least several hundred mujahadeen have remained in Bosnia and carry out clandestine activities. “The sooner the world comes to grip with this reality, the better. Otherwise, the price to pay may be too great,”, Trifunovic warned. (Continued)

The Bosnian Serb entity (Republika Srpska) police chief Dragan Andan claimed in May there were "dormant" al-Qaeda cells in Bosnia. But Andan came under pressure to resign after his allegations were rejected as baseless propaganda by the Bosnian Muslim authorities. According to Andan, 1,740 mujahadeen from Arab countries had fought on the side of Bosnian Muslims in the 1992-1995 civil war, and 400 of these obtained Bosinian passports and had remained in the country.

Andan refused to step down, and the story died away. He was unavailable for comment on new reports this week about al-Qaeda training camps in Bosnia from the Amercian News Service (CNS), quoting US terrorism expert Ivan Colman.

Colman claims young people were being taken into the hills and trained for Jihad in new camps operated by veteran jihadists from Islamic countries. Apparently the aim was not to organise permanent camps for terrorist actions, but to create a network of mobile cells that are not easy to track down.

Recent events and the fact that attacks on him had ceased, “in a way vindicated Andan”, said Trifunovic.