ISLAMIC TERRORISM AND THE BALKANS:
THE PERFECT TRAINING GROUND
Adapted
by Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring from Ioannis Michaletos
The emergence of radical – militant
Islam during the 90’s is a very complicated issue that involves worldwide
actors, social dynamics and a deep knowledge of the religious realm of the
Islamic world. This article aims to present and inform for the events that
shaped Islamic terrorism in the BALKANS. In this corner of EUROPE, the past 15
years, the roots of Islamic radicalism have deepened and it is of the outermost
importance to comprehend this phenomenon, so as to be able to combat it.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA – MUJAHEDIN GATE WAY TO EUROPE?
The beginning of the YUGOSLAVIAN
civil strife in 1991 presented an excellent chance for the Mujahedin to get
into EUROPE via the ethno-cultural conflict between Christians and Muslims in BOSNIA.
These religious mercenaries had proved their aptitude in war from the early
80’s when they fought the SOVIET Army in AFGHANISTAN, and managed to inflict
great damages to it using WESTERN assistance.
The WEST at that period, along with
its regional allies, promoted the creation of the so-called “Green Arch”. That
meant the creation of strong Islamic pockets in areas of SOVIET influence, or
in border countries that deemed important for the strategy of the WEST against
the SOVIETS. Thus AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN, CAUCASUS, and in TURKEY (through the
use of the TURKISH “Hezbollah”), became radicalized during the 80’s.
WAR IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA WAS THE TRIAL TEST FOR RADICAL
ISLAMIC GROUPS
What the West could not comprehend
and predict at that period, is the “Genie out of the bottle” effect. Once these
radicals groups gained access to armaments and training, they became autonomous
and sought to create their own agenda. Therefore the war in BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA was
the trial test of their newly founded role.
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| Zenica-Doboj Region in FBIH |
In mid-1992 some 3000 -3500 Mujahedin
were already present in the ranks of the BOSNIAN Army as volunteer forces. They retained their operational autonomy
and in essence became an army within an army. Most of their forces were under
the command of General Shakib Mahmouljin and their area of operations was
Zenica. Soon the Mujahedin acquired the aura of the elite force within the BOSNIAN
Muslim Army and were accounted for many atrocities against Christian
population. There were instances where the guerillas didn’t hesitate in
presenting publicly beheaded corpses with the heads of the victims in baskets,
a tactic often used in the Ottoman period as a part of psychological warfare
against the enemy.
During the BOSNIAN war, the Al-Qaeda
was beginning to emerge as a worldwide Islamic force that intended to strike
the West with all means possible. One of the key elements in its success would
be to get a hold of “safe havens” in EUROPE. The situation in BOSNIA was the
opportunity wanted, and soon logistic bases were established within the BOSNIAN
territory. Moreover a campaign of recruiting BOSNIAN Muslims to the Al –Qaeda
cause, resulted in the creation of “Islamic pockets” in the middle of the BALKANS.
By the end of 1995 and the subsequent Dayton treaty that ended the war;
hundreds of Mujahedin fighters were permanent residents of the established BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
state, and acquired the citizenship of that country.
THE SENSITIVE ISSUE OF THE KOSOVO STATUS IS ALSO INTERLINKED
WITH THE PRESENCE OF TERRORISM
The USA security agencies have
revealed that two of the hijackers in 9/11 attacks, had toured the BALKANS and
were trained in an Al-Qaeda camp in BOSNIA. In addition the explosives used in
the 7/7 attacks in London came from the BALKANS, an event that portrays the
tremendous lack of perspective that the West had when it tolerated the
emergence of such networks.
The sensitive issue of the KOSOVO
status is also interlinked with the presence of terrorism –Of an Islamic
nature- and its ramifications are much more extended than conventionally
thought. Moreover the impact of Islamic driven terrorism in the BALKANS is not
only restrained in the region but has global consequences, thus it needs
multiparty intelligence cooperation in order to be dealt with.
Worries about KOSOVO
morphing into a safe haven for terrorists are not without merit. After all,
radical Islamic elements aided some KOSOVARS–and earlier, BOSNIAKS (BOSNIAN
Muslims)–in the ethno-religious warfare that led to the collapse of YUGOSLAVIA
in the 1990s. For example, AUSTRALIAN al-Qaeda fighter David Hicks traveled to
the BALKANS to join the notorious KOSOVO Liberation Army. Hicks completed
military training at a KLA camp and later fought alongside the Taliban in AFGHANISTAN,
where U.S. forces apprehended him.
THE ALBANIAN NATIONALISM AND THE ISLAMIC TERRORISM
As in the case of ALBANIA, the ALBANIAN
Muslims (70% of the population) proved to be a magnet for the Islamists that
sought to regain a foothold in EUROPE. The conditions by which ALBANIA was
freed by the Communist regime in the early 90’s, revealed the existence of a
backward isolated country with no interaction with the rest of the world. The
transition from a central command structure to that of a free market; ensured
the development of multiple societal forces within the much repressed Albanian
society.
In early 1994 the infamous Osama Bin
Laden, paid a visit to Tirana, presumably to oversight the networking of his
activities there. He came back in 1998 to oversee Al-Qaeda training camps in the
Northern part of ALBANIA, just across the borders with KOSOVO. The trainers –of
Arabic origin mostly- were assigned to train the newly recruits of the Usthria Climirtare e Kosoves –U.C.K-
units for the forthcoming guerilla warfare against the YUGOSLAV forces in KOSOVO.
The then ALBANIAN Director of the ALBANIAN
secret service-SHIK-named Fatos Klosi admitted the training that took place in
these camps and the existence of “Jihad warriors” from SUDAN, ALGERIA, SAUDI
ARABIA and EGYPT that were responsible for the instruction of the UCK army. To
this point it is important to add to the above, the existence of the ALBANIAN
ARAB Islamic Bank, that was used for the financing of terrorist activities
throughout the BALKANS. Various sources indicate the existence of Bin Laden’s
backing in the bank’s capital, with the sum of 11 million USD.
See: The center for Peace in the
Balkans (09/2001), “Bin Laden’s Balkan connections”. Website: http://www.balkanpeace.org/index.php?index=/content/analysis/a09.incl
In 1997, the financial collapse of ALBANIA
by an economic scandal that shook the country; resulted in social unrest
throughout the country and brought about the collapse of the rule of law. An
uncounted number of armaments were stolen during the period of the riots from
the ALBANIAN’S Army caches, and the bulk of it ended in the hands of the UCK
and its Islamist collaborators. (Comment by
Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring: Allegedly some of these arms are still
hidden in the numerous UCK memorial sites that are located all over KOSOVO.)
Until early 1998 USA characterized
UCK as a terrorist organization, due to its connection with well-known figures
of the extremist elements of the Islamic world. Nevertheless, the AMERICAN
policy changed its direction since it deemed the existence of Milosevic more
threatening at that period than the Islamic movement. During the skirmishes and
fights before the NATO intervention in March 1999, the YUGOSLAV Army managed to
inflict great damages to the Mujahedin fighters that were combating along the
UCK lines. In Urocevac the bulk of them were eliminated by the SERBIAN Army and
was obliged to retreat back in their safe havens in Northern ALBANIA.
ISLAMIC CHARITABLE FUNDS (NGOS) ACROSS THE REGION ARE MUSHROOMING
After the end of the 1999 war, the
Mujahedin networks regrouped and started to infiltrate the KOSOVO area in great
numbers. That included the mushrooming of Islamic charitable funds across the
region, the construction of Mosques and the radicalization of the local ALBANIAN
population and the wider Muslim populations of ex-YUGOSLAVIA.
It is interesting to note that the ALBANIAN
population in its majority cannot be conceived as a fundamentalist Islamic
nation and the extremists are for the time being a forceful minority of that
nation. The Islamic expansion in the BALKANS is coupled with the existence of
the criminal syndicates that are all prevalent in the BALKAN Peninsula. Since
the terrorist activities cannot be financed through the use of the legal free
market economy, the use of narcotics and trafficking illegal trade has enabled
the flourishing of the terrorist networks.
The “Hybrid” organizations as the
merged terrorist and criminal are named, has created the necessary framework
for the BALKANS to enter in one of the worst periods of their modern history. Leading
criminologist Loretta Napoleoni has researched articulately the issue and
offers illuminating approaches as to the extent of the infiltration of crime
& terrorism in world economy.
See: CRIME AND CORRUPTION AND THE POLITICAL
SYSTEM
CRIME AND CORRUPTION ARE TWO OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST MULTINATIONAL
INDUSTRIES
APPROX. 1.5 TRILLION USD ARE THE REVENUE OF ORGANIZED CRIME
WORLDWIDE.
A fair portion of that is being
achieved by controlling the “BALKAN drugs route” a geographical area that
encompasses KOSOVO, NORTHERN ALBANIA and Tetovo. Some Islamic terrorism networks
have located some of their bases, along the way of some of the most lucrative “criminal
areas” of EUROPE. Therefore they are able to increase revenues and thus finance
its operations.
In spring 2001, the Mujahedin
forces, once again, were brought to day-light by joining the National
Liberation Army in its fight in Western FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). The NLA was a composition of various ALBANIAN fractions
that along with the Islamic extremists sought to prepare the basis for the
disintegration of FYROM. There is a large ALBANIAN minority in the country,
which also happens to be located right in the centre of the “Balkan drug route”.
The Mujahedin formed the majority of the 113 brigade of NLA, and were accused
of many atrocities against innocent civilians of Slavic descent.
On August 2001 the Ohrid accord was signed and the conflict ceased without any real gains by the Albanian side. A month later, the attack on the twin towers revealed to the world the spread and the power the terrorist organizations have amassed, thus the “War on terror” begun and to a great extent dismantled the world wide Islamic terrorist web.
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: A SAFE HAVEN FOR RADICAL ISLAMIST FRACTIONS?
On August 2001 the Ohrid accord was signed and the conflict ceased without any real gains by the Albanian side. A month later, the attack on the twin towers revealed to the world the spread and the power the terrorist organizations have amassed, thus the “War on terror” begun and to a great extent dismantled the world wide Islamic terrorist web.
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: A SAFE HAVEN FOR RADICAL ISLAMIST FRACTIONS?
NAWAF AL HAZMI, a SAUDI. He was a
September 11th hijacker. He fought in BiH in 1995.
KHALID AL-MIHDHAR, from YEMEN. He
also was a September 11th hijacker. He also fought in BiH with the foreign
mujahideen battalion in Bosnia in 1995
SHEIKH OMAR ABD-AL RAHMAN (convicted of the 1993 attack on the WTC) was connected
with the so-called humanitarian organization TWRA, which was a cover for
terrorists. Then BOSNIAN president ALIJA
IZETBEGOVIC made personal guarantees for TWRA’s general director and
personal friend ELFATIH HASSANEIN, so he could open an account with Die Erste Osterreich Bank in Vienna,
Austria in 1993.
MOHAMMED HAYDAR ZAMMAR, who
recruited MOHAMED ATTA into Al-Qaeda, had a terrorist base in BOSNIA. Zammar is
also responsible for recruiting two of Atta’s lieutenants, RAMZI BINALSAHIB and
SAID BAHAJI.
OSAMA BIN LADEN received a BOSNIAN
passport from the Embassy in Vienna,
Austria. Many other Al-Qaeda members were issued BIH passports, which
enabled them to continue their terrorist activities.
ABU AL-MA’ALI (ABDELKADER MOKHTARI),
a senior Al-Qaeda operative, was stationed in BOSNIA until recently. Just a few
years ago, US officials used to call him “Osama Bin Laden, Jr.”
BENSAYAH BELKACEM was arrested in BOSNIA
in October 2001. Numbers saved in his cell phone connected him with at least
one top-rank associate of Bin Laden
THE “WHITE AL-QAEDA” IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
Information available to experts on
international terrorism (in 2005) indicate that BIH at that time allegedly was
and maybe still is one of the most dangerous countries in EUROPE, as it represents
a nursery for potential Islamic terrorists – the so called “white” or “EUROPEAN”
Al-Qaeda. Money from Islamic countries that is laundered through “humanitarian”
organizations finances the religious education of at least 100,000 young
Bosnian Muslims.
See: ISLAMIC COMMUNITY: THE
SCHOOLS ARE OURS: http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2012/07/ethnic-rift-key-hindrance-to-bosnias.html
and
In addition to such education, which
follows the interpretations of Wahhabi Islam, there is another type of
“training” in various officially registered camps throughout the BIH Federation.
There, the young and carefully selected Wahhabis attend “additional courses” in
marksmanship, explosives and martial arts. Organizations such as “Furqan,” the
“Active Islamic Youth,” the “Muslim Youth Council” and others – differing only
in name and primary donors, but otherwise interchangeable – teach young Muslims
computer and Internet skills, so they could establish contacts with their
coreligionists worldwide. Knowing all this, the former head of UN Mission in BOSNIA
Jacques Paul Klein recently said that some 200 mujahid’din in BOSNIA did not
represent a danger, because they can be easily controlled. Klein knew it would
be a lot more difficult to stop the spread of young BOSNIAN Wahhabis throughout
EUROPE, youths who consider Osama Bin Laden and the mujahid’din role models.
Nowadays there is still a strong presence of a variety of extremist Islamic
groups in BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA, under the pretext of charity funds and related
philanthropic establishments.
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