The Bosnian Link

The LET, along with theHarkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), both of them of the Afghan war vintage, was also inthe forefront in organising assistance for the Muslim separatists of SouthernPhilippines, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and Dagestan.  Since the early 1990s,both the organisations had been collecting funds for the Muslim separatists inthese areas, smuggling to them arms and ammunition and had even sent their owncadres to fight for the separatists.

An assessment disseminated inOctober,1994, by a news organisation called Compass had stated asfollows:

"Arab "Afghans"have been moving further afield as well.  Some are in Bosnia, helpingfellow Muslims fight the Christian Serbs.  Between 200 and 300 of theseveterans of the Afghan war, including non-Arab Muslims, are based in Zenica inBosnia, where they are widely feared.  Hundreds of "Afghans" havemade their way to Bosnia.  The number of non-Bosnian Muslims in themilitary is estimated at between 500 and 1,000 from a dozen countries in theMiddle East.  From all accounts, they have fought with some distinction. Some 300 "Afghans," organized into a unit known as "theGuerrillas," operate with the Bosnian 3rd Corps in Zenica.  Algerianleader Kamar Kharban, a veteran of the Afghanistan war, has visited Bosniaseveral times over the last two years.

"The 'Afghans' and otherMuslim volunteers have also been a source of friction with the Bosnians, who arelargely secular Muslims.  The outsiders' religious zeal and arrogantcommitment to their holy war has angered their hosts.  But many of thevolunteers represent wealthy organizations or countries whose support thebeleaguered Bosnians count on.  The "Afghans" are believed tohave been behind the murder of British aid worker Paul Goodall on Jan. 27, 1994,near Zenica.  Three Muslim volunteers, all Arabs carrying fake Pakistanipassports, were shot dead by Bosnian military police at a roadblock nearSarajevo.  Three others were arrested by police for questioning in themurder.  The Al-Kifah, or Struggle, Refugee Center in New York, which usedto recruit and raise funds for Mujahedeen headed for Afghanistan, last yearannounced it was switching its operations to Bosnia.  It was established inthe mid-1980s by Egyptian Mustafa Rahman as a joint venture with Sheikh OmarAbdel-Rahman, spiritual leader of Gamaa al-Islamiya. "

In 1996, in a book titled OffensiveIn the Balkans, Mr. Yossef Bodansky, Director of the Republican TASK FORCEON TERRORISM AND UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE of the US House of Representatives,wrote as follows on the "Bosnian Jehad":

"...The build-up of newIslamist units was completed in Bosnia- Herzegovina in the Spring of 1995. These forces are closely associated with the Armed Islamist Movement (AIM) andIslamist international terrorism, and include the first organized deployment ofMARTYRDOM FORCES (THAT IS, SUICIDE TERRORISTS), both veteran Arabs and newlytrained Bosnians.

"These new activities wereconducted under the guidance of the new Islamist headquarters in Teheran andKarachi, decided upon during the Popular Arab Islamic Conference (PAIC) convenedin Khartoum in the first days of April 1995.  The Conference decided toestablish "new Islamist representative offices" for the internationalIslamist movement.  The new regional center in Tehran will be responsiblefor Islamist activities (training, equipping, operational support, etc.) inBosnia-Herzegovina (as well as other politically-sensitive hot spots), while thecomparably new center in Karachi would be responsible for Islamist activities inAlbania (and Kosovo).  Furthermore, this overall Islamist effort andbuild-up is not just to cope with the situation in the Balkans, but also to beused as A SOUND BASE FOR THE ISLAMISTS' ABILITY TO EXPAND OPERATIONS INTOWESTERN EUROPE - mainly France, the UK and Germany...

"Meanwhile, the leadershipof the Armed Islamic Movement (AIM) was formally notified in mid-May 1995 thatthe "Mujahedin Battalion is an officially-recognized army battalion of theBosnian army.  It is comprised of non-Bosnian volunteers, called ANSAR,along with Bosnian Mujahedin.  The formal name of the unit is "ArmijaRepublike BiH, 3 Korpus, Odred el-Mujahedin".  The commander, anEgyptian "Afghan", was identified as "Ameer Kateebat al-MujahedinAbu al-Ma'ali" - a religious-military title and a nom the guerre.  TheIslamist force is based in Travnik and Zenica areas in central Bosnia...

 "...The Khartoum,Sudan-based National Islamic Front (NIF) - the political umbrella organizationto which AIM answers - did not take long to look for the appropriate solutionsfor the challenges in Bosnia- Herzegovina...

 "...Being atheologically driven movement, the NIF supreme leadership sought legalprecedents to serve as a guideline for the nature of jihad which they believeshould be waged in Bosnia, Palestine, and Kashmir.  In mid-August 1995,Khartoum informed the AIM senior officials in the front line - in such places asSarajevo, Muzzaffarabad (Pakistan), and Damascus - of the precedent found.

"The NIF leadership pointedto the text of a "fatwa" originally issued by the Islamic ReligiousConference held in El-Obaeid, State of Kordofan (Sudan), on April 27, 1993. Itis presently used in Khartoum, at the highest levels of NIF, as theprecedent-setting text for legislating relations between Muslims and non-Muslimsin areas where the infadels are not willing to be simply subdued by the Muslimforces.  The following places - Palestine, Bosnia, and Kashmir - are statedexplicitly as areas to where the principles outlined by this fatwa are mostapplicable.

 "...Meanwhile,Sarajevo's apocalyptic view of the future fits closely with the Islamists'growing anticipation of "gloom and doom" in their relations with theWest...

"...The AIM seniorofficials in Sarajevo reported in mid-May 1995 the completion of "a newcamp called Martyrs' Detachment", in order to absorb many newly-arrivingMujahedin.  These SUICIDE TERRORISTS, including at least a dozen BosnianMuslims, graduated from an intensive course in training camps in Afghanistan andPakistan in the early Spring of 1995.  These Bosnians along with Arab"Afghans" were deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina for both operations inthe Balkans as well as, should the need arise, operations in Western Europe(specially France, the UK, Italy, and Belgium). ("Afghan" is the termused to describe those fighters trained and tested in the Afghanistan civil war. Most are of Arab, North African or Pakistani origin).

"High-level Arab sources inthe Middle East stressed that these Bosnia-based Mujahedin, especially thesuicide terrorists, are being organized as a new force, forming a center foroperations throughout Europe.  Moreover, by the Summer of 1995, theIslamist infrastructure in Bosnia-Herzegovina had already constituted the coreof a new training center for European Muslims."