Origins of terrorism in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its Classic Shapes

Origins of terrorism in Bosnia

and Herzegovina and its classic shapes

The History of terrorism in B-H

The terrorist actions of Islamic fundamentalists in Bosnia-Herzegovina were preceded by the methods of terror used by the Croats who were followers of the Ustaša movement. The principle goal of the Ustaša movement was to create the “Independent State of Croatia” and it was successful in it’s goal by acquiring the independence of the Republic of Croatia at the end of 20^th century. Combining people from the extreme left-wing to the extreme right-wing - for the Ustaše movement ideology was not important; instead it was the political aim which was to be realized. One of the very first terrorist actions carried out by the members of Ustaše movement occurred in 1972.

The group consisted of 19 terrorists[30], made up of Croatian immigrants and members of the terrorist organization the “Croatian Revolutionary Brotherhood” which operated in Europe, Australia, and the USA. The aim of this group was the “liberation of Croatia by creating an armed rebellion”[31]. Leaders of the group were Pavle Vegar and Ambrozije Andrić. Other members of the group[32] gathered near Gratz in Austria in order to perform the necessary preparations that included terrorist training and the acquisition of equipment. From there they shifted themselves by foot, to the territory known at the time as SFRY, near Dravograd. The group was surrounded and broken up on the mountain Raduša, near Bugojno, B-H, for which it was originally named “Bugojanska group”. During the attack of the security forces fifteen members of the group perished, and four were arrested. After the trial process that took place in Sarajevo on 21.12. 1972., all four of them were condemned to the death penalty.

The history and destinies of the Balkan people are inseparable. The Balkans was and remains not only the crossroad of people, but also the crossroad of various political interests for great powers. A special place in the history of the Balkans belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina. For the whole Balkans as well as for Bosnia and Herzegovina, “rewinding the historical clock” began with the eruption of the Ottomans in the XV century. Islamization of the local people was growing rapidly.

Jovan Cvijić talks about it: [33] “Bosnian mujaheddins have lived under unique clauses and so they have different physical traits then other Slovene renegades of the Balkan Peninsula. They are entirely different then Pomaks or mujaheddin transformed Slovenes of south and old Serbia, Macedonia and Bulgaria. It is known that Bosnian Mussulmans are Serbs, mostly Serbian nobility that changed their religion (mainly Bogomil and Orthodox) and lost their nation's consciousness. Past esquires remained esquires under the Turkish sway. For centuries Bosnia has been a peripheral Turkish country, the most distant from Anadol and Tsar Grad, Osmanlis were able to notably restrain it since they were connived over Bosnian mujaheddins who often had actual autonomy. These mujaheddins lapsing from creed and Serbian national consciousness aimed to show worthy new religion and positions and so contradicted their compatriots, who remained with their old religion. The latter was done because of the disgrace that is exhibit with all regents, and which causes their tendency to alienate from their own roots and to extirpate the relations and feelings that bonded them together. Many have developed the traits of arrogance, boastfulness and fake Turkism. It is known how they treated Vlachs. They shaped themselves to be more Turk-like and they believed that they were better Turks than Osmanlis. Furthermore, they believed that even Sultans were not as good as they were. Such powers and apocryphal Turkism could not have developed with any other Islamized group of Slovenes of the Balkan Peninsula. Besides that, their Serbian nature was embedded by oriental manners and moods; and their domestic and personal lives were diverse and versatile. Harmony, as well as serenity and calm were established. Besides that, more than any other national group in the peninsula, they preserved petrified, medieval ways of thinking; they are non-critical in the mass, are fantasists, and keen to believe in the impossible. A bolt from the blue could not surprise and change apocryphal Turks of Bosnia and Herzegovina as temporary occupation and annexation socially have unsettled them. Not just that they fell under the Christian state but also that they fell under a Christian state with clerical tendencies and a rigid bureaucratic regime. Even being favored for quite some time by the Bosnian government did not help improve their psychological condition. Occupation and everything that followed was throwing insults on them, and they were being insulted from all around.”

The national identity crisis that caused the alteration of historical facts, led some Muslim intellectuals to start with projects of creating “the new nation”, a language, culture and other influences in order to demonstrate autochthonous characteristic of peoples that lived or live on the territory of the Balkans, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The pitch of historical-political perversion is visible in the manners that are represented by Mustafa Banović, Ante Herceg, and Muhamed Filipović in “Development of Balkan Peoples”[34] where it says: “Bošnjaks of various religions have lived in the territory of Bosnia within the memory of men… As for the Christian Orthodox Church in the Bosnian territory, it did not exist there before the arrival of Turks, it had a more important role in Herzegovina. It is important to emphasize that today’s Bosnian Serbs – because of assimilation of a portion of the Vlachs – are a major component of the population of Bosnia-Herzegovina that have non-Slavic origins. As for the Vlachs, they are almost nonexistent today in Bosnia. Through the course of history, Vlachs have preserved their indigenousness and sovereignty only in the East of Serbia… According to their historical and cultural norms, today’s Bosnian Serbs should have declared themselves as Bošnjaks of the Christian Orthodox creed, or part of them as Bosnian Vlachs. Unfortunately, the situation here is that old Bošnjaks of the Christian Orthodox creed (i.e. forcedly christened heretical Bošnjaks) and Vlachs have forgotten, or of their own accord rejected to the oblivion their ancestral Bošnjaks’s (and partially Vlachs’s) belonging, wherefore they conjoined in international framework.”

In its commentary the national TV of Great Britain or otherwise known as BBC – World Service,[35] says: “The irony rests in the fact that Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina, even though they are a religious group, had for the first time been proclaimed as a separate nation during the atheist communist rule of Josip Broz Tito. It was under his rule that they received equal rights with all other nations within the Yugoslavian federation... Since the war that ran on between 1992 and 1995, Muslims preferred to be called Bošnjaks, which is indeed the definition that in essence does not have a religious meaning. In fact, for the numerous citizens of such orientation, the awareness about their Muslim identity is linked more with cultural heritage than it is with religious beliefs... Most of the Muslims on the Balkans are descendants of Christians; either Orthodox or Roman Catholic, who changed their religion because of different incentives. Muslims in the Ottoman Empire had many privileges – they paid lower taxes, gained easier employment in king’s offices, and they had the right to carry a weapon or to take upon themselves various occupations and sale. Of course, there were cases of forcible change of religion“.

In piece Muslims of our blood in south Serbia[36] in the beginning of 20^th century, Dr. Jovan Hadzi Vasiljević says: “In general, our nation is shared among two religions; Christian and Muslim. Those of the Christian religion are split mainly among two churches; and those of the Muslim religion among several sects... Since the beginning, the Turkism of our people was two-sided: by force or by will, and as seen later, it was undertaken in masses or individually“.

From represented lines of Muslim historians, it is obvious that there is a need for a quest in order to get to our own roots or identity. In science, this appearance is not new, and it is present with nations or parts of nations that had to relinquish their history, religion or origin several times in order to survive or in some cases in order to retain certain privileges. That identity quest in the 21st century and the rediscovering of ties with peoples and civilizations which are for different reasons behind modern civilization, has led to the creation of an ideal ground for those forces, especially in extreme streams of Islam that want to enliven the idea of recovering the caliphate. The question remains open; Will modern civilization have patience or not, or will it be able to preserve its values against new advent, coated with religious zealotry seen in madrasas of the Middle or Far East?

The appearance of religiously coated fanaticism has unfortunately become a reality of the entire Balkan region, especially of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was exactly that linkage which is repeatedly insisted on in radical Islamic countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, or within Islamic scopes in Turkey and Egypt, that led to the sharp radicalization of the Muslim population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Because of the absence of their own identity and desire for idealization of the past, some of the leaders of Bosnian Muslims were driven to share their similarities in religion and fanaticism with those that are likeminded, regardless of where they are coming from, now or in the past. With regard to the situation that the Balkan region is “The meeting point or clash of civilizations”, Muslim peoples or their groups in Balkans (with no identity, since Moslem, as someone who believes in Islam, is not indicative of national belonging) have been easily manipulated in the past and the present. Century’s long occupation of Turks has left marks not only on the culture, but has also left horrible traces on the entire nations. During the Second World War even Nazi Adolf Hitler had noticed, not only on the Balkans, the desire of certain Muslim communities for expansion and intrusion of their extreme religious attitudes.

Islamic fundamentalists were practicing and convoying their ideology of violence by all possible means. Processes and acts in which Islamic fundamentalists’ circles reached their peak followed the revolution in Iran. The main goal of Islamic fundamentalists was the establishment of a Muslim state in the heart of Europe that would be regulated by Islamic standards. Whether it was about political activities or various forms of violence, the end sanctifies the means. The civil war in B-H between 1992 and 1995 showed that Islamic fundamentalists had organized entire terrorist-guerilla units that arrived from Afghanistan in order to fight in a jihad together with other like-minded people. During the civil war, the first nucleuses of terrorist cells of Islamic fundamentalists in the territory of B-H were established with their specifics that are reflected in these acts. These specifics are not only ethnic and cultural-geographical. The fact is that these are completely new ways of creating a global terrorist network such as what we today call “Al-Qaeda”, but more precisely its branch in B-H. The transformation of the first guerilla units of Islamic fundamentalists into terrorist cells capable of conducting terrorist attacks at anytime and anywhere in the world is particularly interesting to monitor.

Second World War and origins of Islamic terrorism

Nazi “Handžar SS Division”

Alongside the formation of the Nazi puppet government of Croatia, or NDH, during the Second World War, a particular SS unit consisting solely of Muslims was created in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In order to spread congenial ideas of Nazism and Islamic fundamentalism, Ante Pavelić[37] ordered the building of the mentioned mosque, which was called “Head’s Mosque”, in order to assure the union of his ideas and his military made up of Bosnian Muslims, which this military criminal often called the “Flowers of Croatia”. Therefore, in August of 1941, the Muslim delegation guided by spiritual leader Reis-ul Ulema Fehim ef. Spaho arrived in Zagreb to visit Ante Pavelić. Nazi Ante Pavelić was promised full loyalty and support by the Bosnian Muslims, and in return, most of them received important positions in the newborn Nazi state of Croatia (NSC). The president of that former Nazi state was Bosnian Muslim Osman Džaferbeg Kulenović, a member of the government was Dr. Mehmed Alabegović, and the Ustaša commissioner of Bosnia and Herzegovina was Hakija Hadzić.

Before the creation of the SS Handžar divison, which was part of Nazi units, there already existed units composed only of Muslims, who were committing terrible crimes towards civilians, primarily Serbs, Roms and Jews. It was these units: "Hadziefendić Legion" under the rule of Muhamed Hadziefendić; “Green Cadres”, a Nazi formation formed by Domobranci deserters who’s head was Nedzad Topić; the “Young Muslims”, who’s member was Alija Izetbegović;[38] “Huska Miljković's Muslim Army”; and “Goražde-Foča Muslim policing units”. All these units were in the service of the Nazi formation in context of the Third Reich.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Al Mohamed Effendi Amin el Huseini, a fanatical leader who was supporting genocide over Jews and other people, had many things in common with Adolf Hitler and his closest collaborators, especially Himmler. Still before the war, this fanatical religious leader had been the host and organizer of the “Pan Islamic Conference” held in December of 1931 in Jerusalem, where Mehmed Spaho and Uzegira Hadzihasanović had participated. The Mufti of Jerusalem had on that occasion, in the spirit of Muslim brotherhood, promised to help all the Muslims of B-H and give assistance to the greatest Nazis at that time.

Already in October of 1942, a delegation of Bosnian Muslims[39] was visiting in Rome with another big Nazi figure, Benito Mussolini, who had in the meantime proclaimed himself as the protector of Islam. From Mussolini they requested his help to enable them to create a fascist protectorate in Bosnia and Herzegovina, following the Albanian model, which would comprise Kosovo and west Macedonia. Talks with Mussolini did not work out for them, so for the carriers of the idea of radical Islam in B-H there was one more chance to be had but this time with the Nazi number one of that time – Adolf Hitler.

In convincing Hitler to form the SS unit composed of Bosnian Muslims, the key role had the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Huseini[40] and Himmler personally involved. Himmler was fascinated by the readiness of Muslim soldiers to die for a “Holy War” (Jihad). In a conversation with Joseph Goebbels, Himmlers said “…nothing against Islam, because Islam teaches a man in his division (SS handžar) for me and promises them paradise if they fight and are killed in action. It is a very practical and attractive religion for soldiers”.

Himmler was fascinated both with the idea of Islam and jihad but also had another strategic advantage on his mind. If he succeeded to attract all Bosnian Muslims in his SS 120 units, that would serve for him as an attractive model for Turkey and its (then) 40 million Muslims. He was very familiar with links between Turkey and Bosnian Muslims, and Turkey was important in order to unsettle England in the region of Middle East.

Himmler presented the plan of the inclusion of Bosnian Muslims in SS units to Hitler, in a way that prior to that he was explaining to him that Bosnian Muslims are, in fact racially Aryans and culturally Arab-Turkish, regardless of the fact that they speak Serbo-Croatian. This way Himmler had become the real creator of the large Muslim ideology in B-H, by observing the great number of similarities and common goals between Nazism and Islamic fanaticism.[41]

After the big preparations on December 6^th 1942, Himmler had officially proposed to Adolf Hitler the formation of SS divisions composed of Bosnian Muslims. Hitler approved the plan on February 10^th 1943. The “SS handžar division” was in the context of the Nazi formation of Croatia (NDH). During 1944, two “SS handžar divisions” had been established, composed of over 26,000 soldiers.

The Mufti of Jerusalem, El Huseini had played not only an important role in the forming of this Nazi unit, but also had actively recruited Islamists for it. On his trip between March through April 1943, El Huseini had visited Albania, Kosovo and Metohija, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. On that occasion, he met with prominent Islamists of Bosnia of that time; Uzeirag Hadžihasanović and hadži-Mujag Merhemić. After an igneous speech in Bey's mosque in Sarajevo, he invited those gathered to join the “SS handžar units”. For his plans, the Mufti El Huseini had gained broad support from Bosnian reis ul-ulema Hazif Muhamed Pandža, who had propagated ideas of the Third Reich amongst scholarly Muslims in Sarajevo and other cities of B-H.

Soon after, already about mid March of 1943, recruitment centers for the “SS handžar” division had been established in the majority of cities in B-H. The main recruitment centers were Sarajevo, Tuzla, Mostar, Doboj, Brčko, and Bihać. Beyond the borders of present day B-H, and within the borders of past Nazi NDH, recruitment centers were in Zemun, Zagreb, Osijek, and Slavonski Brod. Within the “SS handžar” unit were also ethnic Albanians from the Kosovo region. They trained and they fought in B-H, but the majority returned to Albania and Kosovo and there formed another SS division known under the name “21 Waffen Gebirgs-Division der SS Skanderbeg”.

2.2.2 The Nazi “SS Skenderbeg Division”

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Hadži Amin el Huseini had an ambition for the Muslims that lived in the Balkans in the region between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo and Metohija, to form one big Islamic state. The groundwork for this plan was the creation of the “SS handžar division” in B-H, so soon after, the formation of similar units had started in the region of Kosovo and Metohija and Albania. The Muslim leader of the Albanians, extremist Bedri Pejani, who was the president of the Albanian National Committee, was interceding for the ethnic cleansing of Orthodox Christians – Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija, and together with other like minded individuals he gave full support to the foundation of the “SS Skenderbeg Divison”.

Germans, who in the beginning were against this plan, due to the given circumstances were forced to occupy Albania[42] during the withdrawal of the Italian forces, after the capitulation of Italy. The Nazi SS General Staff was planning to recruit around 10.000 people, but the response of the people recruited by the Albanian National Committee exceeded all expectations. On the enrollment lists were 11,398 recruits. The “SS Skenderbeg division” was formed on April 17, 1944, composed mostly of recruits who were Albanians from Kosovo and Metohija. This division was actively included in the Nazi politics of genocide and ethnic cleansing directed towards the non Albanian population, mostly in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, but also in the territory that is today called the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which at that time was located in South Serbia.

2.3 Period between the Second World War until the Civil War in B-H

During the Second World War, Alija Izatbegović was a member of the Islamic fundamentalist organization “El Hidaia” which belonged to the organization “Young Muslims”.[43] From the year 1943 Alija Izatbegović was the partner of the Nazi occupation forces of Germany as well as one of the main organizers for the recruitment of young Muslims for the Nazi “SS Handžar” division. He was actively operating with Hitler’s secret service (Abver and the Gestapo), and he was closely working with The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Hadj Amin al Husseini. In the after-war period he continued with his activities, whose main goal was spreading Islamic fundamentalism, after which Alija Izatbegović would become the first president of the Bosnian Muslims in the beginning of the year 1990[44]; in November of that same year, he became president of the presidency of B-H.

The units that made up the "SS Handžar” division had committed numerous war crimes over the Serbian people. On June 15, 1946, Alija Izatbegović was convicted by the Supreme Military Court SFRJ 566/46 and was sentenced to five years in prison for war crimes against people and the state. After serving the sentence, Alija Izatbegović continued his activities aimed at the racial and religious animosity of the people of the former Yugoslavia. His activities and those of other like-minded people were based on propagation of the differences between people, spreading Islamic fundamentalism, and the formation of a fundamentalist Islamic state in the heart of Europe.

In Alija Izatbegović’s piece “Islamic Declaration” it says the following: “Between Islamic religion and non-Islamic social and political institutions there is no peace.” He further states, “Having the right to establish its own world, Islam clearly excludes any foreign ideology’s right and option of acting in its domain. Hence, there is no layman principle, and the state should be the way out and should support moral concepts of religion.’[45]

Despite the fact that some extreme Muslim theoreticians want to present it in a different spirit, the messages that Alija Izatbegović had emphasized in his piece, the essential importance phrases by which regular citizens, Muslims or non-Muslims, were able to understand and conclude for themselves the real meaning behind his thoughts. Taking the single sentences out of the context is not reliable, but the sentences or the thoughts that are expressed in them and their interpretation is often simple and easily understood and have one direct, single meaning. The standpoint of Alija Izatbegović: “I am sending this message to all Muslims of the world; we are stressing clearly that the Promised Land does not exist, wizards and Mehdi. There is only the road of hard work, fight and victims.”

From the very beginning, Alija Izatbegović had sympathies towards the Shiite version of radical Islam. [46] The messages that Iranian clerics had been referring to as the “world community” were filled with hate and intolerance. Generations of terrorists had been trained for years by the Iranian regime – and not only terrorists, but also the entire terrorist network that had the goal to enable and justify their actions. Members of that network were Alija Izatbegović and his likeminded comrades (Haris Silajdžić, Hasan Čengić, Muhamed Šaćirbej/Šećerbegović, Muhamed Filipović etc.). Former Iranian religious leader and President Ayatollah Khomeini was publicly interceding the idea that Iran had to be the leader of the global Islamic revolution.

On January 14, 1980, in the Iranian holy city Qom, in front of the 120 lined up Pakistani officers who resided there due to the terrorist-diversionary training, he said: “We are in the war against infidels. Take this message along with you. I am calling for all Islamic nations, all Muslims, all Islamic armies and all Islamic presidents to unite in the holly war. Many enemies exist who need to be killed or abolished. Jihad has to be triumphant.”[47] As a spiritual leader or terrorist, or both, Ayatollah Khomeini had realized the idea linked to the attacks on so called: “Western Targets” with suicide bombers, far before the others, but at the same time he was aiming to expand the influence of radical Islam in all directions, especially towards Bosnia and Herzegovina – towards Europe.

The man who had entirely adopted the learning of the Iranian clerics had found himself once again in the place of the accused. By the decision of the Supreme Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on March 14, 1983, Alija Izatbegović had once more been proclaimed as guilty and sentenced to twelve years in prison for serious criminal acts.[48] The verdict of 1983 was preceded by the visit of the Islamists tightest circle from B-H to Iran, led by Hussein Živalj who would later become one of the key figures of the extreme militant form of Islam in the Balkans. Because of his anticommunist attitudes, Izatbegović’s radical-Muslim standpoints, as well as the political program contained in his works, had gone mostly unnoticed in the West, where communism had been viewed as the biggest planetary evil, until the events of September 11, 2001.

The document about Alija Izatbegović, which was prepared for the members of the British parliament,[49] specifies that Izatbegović in his works and through his efforts supported the following ideas:

- Enliven the overall moral of Islam and regeneration of religion

- Resumption to the real values of Islam

- Re-Islamization of Muslims

- Creation and strengthening of the various aspects of unity in Islam

- The battle for the creation of an Islamic system through political means and war. Also domination in countries where Muslims constituted the majority or the approximate majority of the population.

In his work Islamic Declaration, Izatbegović says, “… From Morocco to Indonesia – the United Islamic community must be established”; with the clear conception of enlivening the idea of the Islamic caliphate, or the idea which is represented practically by all Islamic extremists, and that is the creation of the global Islamic state which they call uma (umma). According to Izatbegović, Pan Islamism represented the highest goal of Islam, so according to it every mussulman had the sacred duty, as one that “devoted himself and complied to god”, to spread the ideas of unification of all Muslims in the world. Further, it is stated: “The Islamic movement has to and is capable of undertaking the political dominion as soon as it is morally and numerically stronger, and not only that it can destroy present non-Islamic authority, it can create a new Islamic one”.

The writings and standpoints of Alija Izatbegović were completely accepted in Islamic radical circles, especially those grouped around the Coordination Committee of Islamic Youth Organization, which included: “The Youth Union of Islamic Society of B-H”, “Young Muslims”[50], the citizens party “Al Furqan”, the militants organization “Fatih” and “The Bosnian Academic Club”. All these, and other Islamic organizations were experiencing Alija Izatbegović as the father of their nation, but not in the same sense as Ataturk who was seen as the father of the Turkish nation.[51] Alija Izatbegović had acutely criticized Ataturk, because, unlike him, Izatbegovic interceded for the global Muslim nation and state, based on Islamic principles in which other religions and nations have only a minor role.

“Non-Muslim minorities in Islamic states, with the condition of loyalty can enjoy freedom of religion and full protection.” This of course referred to the position of the non-Muslims in Bosnia, who Alija Izatbegović had forecasted as the future minority. In the declaration, it is also emphasized: "The Establishment of Islamic order shows the utmost act of democracy, because it means the realization of the deepest aspirations of the Muslim nation, but also the regular man”. Based not on the democratic, but on religious principles, the Islamic order shows what kind of social constitution Izatbegović and his successors interceded for.

When he talks further about the Islamic legality, Alija Izatbegović says: “Islamic order can be achieved only in those countries where Muslims represent the majority of the population. Without this majority, Islamic order comes down only to the authority (due to the lack of other elements – Islamic society) and can grow into violence.” What Izatbegović meant by “violence” remained unclear, but the fact that he meant that violence was intended against Muslims was perfectly clear.

The West Balkans was for decades the center of interest of the Islamic fundamentalists. Numerous Muslim populations that lived in the territory of the so-called “green transversal” represented an excellent stronghold for the recruitment of young Islamic fundamentalists, as well as for performing terrorist actions in Western Europe. Alija Izatbegović and those likeminded people, completely conscious of this fact, were trying and are trying by utilizing the strategy of Islamic fundamentalists, to undertake territories, by expanding the Muslim population. In these scenarios when the Muslim population is the minority the idea is to expand using the population growth rate, which is by multiplying greater than it is with other non-Muslim populations.

After the popular “takeover” of the territories, Islamic fundamentalists were applying the rule “on the land of Allah, the rules and law of Allah”.[52] Therefore, in mid-1994, Bosnian reis ul-ulema Mustafa Cerić had announced the decree (fatwa) which orders Bosnian Muslims to procreate at least five children.[53]

In the book Islam between East and West, published first in the USA in 1984 and later in Turkey, Alija Izatbegović also developed his thesis about the superiority of Islam compared to other religions, cultures, ideologies, and philosophies. In all his works, Alija Izatbegović was negating the existence of nations, and as a sparkling example he appoints the medieval structure of Turkey, in which the nations were treated as minor religious communities, and the population was divided to orthodox (Muslim) and non-orthodox (all others).

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hadži Amen el Huseini had an ambition to form the great Islamic state together with Muslims who live in the Balkans from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Kosovo and Metohija. His ideas and objectives were well accepted by the Muslim intellectual elite of that time, since for that, historical prerequisites already existed. One of the key moments, yet not a precedent one was the fact that Turkish rulers were using the Muslim population of the Balkans, especially Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They gave great privileges to them after their acceptance of Islam, for wars, as well as for suppressing mutinies of the majority of the Christian population, especially the Serbs. One such event was the insurrection by the Serbs in the year 1804. In his piece Jihad[54] Miroljub Jevtić emphasizes, “Sultan – caliph realizes that Serbs want to separate the part of Dar al-Islam, acquired in the holy war, so in this way, Serbian insurrection becomes an attack on God’s will and right. Because of that, it is mandatory for all Muslims to take part in suppressing the rebellion.”[55]

In the beginning of the XX century, a particular extreme wing of Islamic fundamentalists had formed the organization the “Young Muslims”. This kind of approach and radicalization, especially of the youth, which is by nature in all societies aggressive in its advent, served well to certain ideas and ambitions to affirm i.e. isolate from others those religious groups, not ethnic ones, which did not have or did not want to admit their national identity.[56] Privileges that Christians in the Balkans who converted to Islam had during the Ottoman Empire had vanished overnight due to the annexation of B-H by Austro Hungary, which was a Christian country. Reminiscences of the times of the Ottoman Empire will never vanish from the heads of Balkan Muslims, just like the links with Turkey. Having regard to the circumstance that only religion remained as a factor that bonded numerous Islamic populations together after more than five hundred years of Turkish presence. In the Balkans, religion has become the main factor of synthesis – the synthesis that not only comprehended the territories of inhabitance of the Balkan Muslims, but in a way that also represented their bond with the rest of the Muslim world. The religion, in this case Islam, was dictating the whole list of religious rules that were practiced in regular life, and beside religious traditions, the customs and particularities that were brought and left behind by the invaders, the Osmanlis, were practiced too.

In this way, not only the religious, but also the custom, cultural, and civilization differences arose among the population of the same ethnic origins. Culture or any other difference among people make the society richer, and differences among nations and civilizations embody what the world today represents as beautiful and challenging. However, for the Islamic fundamentalists, the differences or existence of other religions and concepts opposite of theirs is not acceptable. Islamic fundamentalists call the people of other religions “infidels”, a term that they use for Christians or “Jewish pigs, the term, which they use for Jews.[57] While he was still teaching at the “Al Azhar” University in Cairo, blind sheik Omar Abdel Rahman said in one of his lectures: “A whole chapter in the Qur'an exists with the title ‘War prize’. There is no chapter with the name for example ‘Peace’. Jihad and killings is the head of Islam. If you cut it out of Islam, you cut the head of Islam.”[58]

The views cited and similar ones of the Islamic fundamentalists reveal the hatred they hold towards other religions and maybe would never have such strength if moderate religious leaders of Islam would have publicly and loudly doomed them. Lack of public disapproval leaves space for others to listen with disbelief to the stories of how Islam is a religion of peace. A stronghold for these unwise concepts is the Qur'an. For example, in the chapter “Bekare” it says: “… Do they think (those who do not want to believe in the right religion) that melecs and god will come on the sky clouds? And the decision (of their punishment and their end) is brought.”[59] Another example: “Kill them wherever you find them and exile them from where ever they exiled you! Suspicion is heavier than killing…”[60] Quotes, just like public statements and declarations of the Balkan’s Islamic fundamentalists have contributed to the spread of hatred among people of different religions, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

One of the reasons that this caused this kind of state and process between communities of different religious orientations in the Balkans is the homogenization of Muslims, who, due to famous historical events, remained an undefined population group without the direct help of Turkey, to whom they faithfully served, as it is stated above, religion is a key conjunctive element. Religion i.e. Islam, besides its conjugative role, has obtained a new meaning in the hands of Islamic fundamentalists. These are different interpretations of certain instances by religious leaders, just like the interpretation of religion by fundamentalists for their needs. Regardless of the manner of interpretation some religious leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina were interpreting the meaning of jihad. For generations of Islamic fundamentalists Jihad represented a “protective war”, a defense from genocide, aggression e.g. protection of state’s sovereignty, etc. For this reason all means of combat were allowed according to the law and religion, and were justified by the political and religious authority of Bosnian Muslims. Except that the defense of “sovereignty” did not mean the defense of the region where Muslims once lived, but in reality it was being used to justify the idea of invading the biggest part of Bosnia and Herzegovina where Christians live, together with invading the neighboring regions – Raška, Montenegro and Kosovo and Metohija.

People belonging to different religions in Bosnia and Herzegovina did not live one next to other, but alongside each other. Variants of jihad that was developed by the Islamic fundamentalists from Bosnia and Herzegovina[61] is only a reflection of the global strategy of the terrorist network “Al Qaeda”, which foremost terrorizes Islam as a religion, and then the entire “modern civilization”. Elfatih Hassanein[62], an Islamic fundamentalist and close friend of Alija Izatbegović, in his statements calls for the creation of an Islamic state in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In an interview in 1994 with one Islamic magazine (fragments were published by the press in Sarajevo)[63] he says: “Bosnia has to end up as a Muslim state, because unless that does not happen, the whole war looses its point, and would be fought for nothing. The war in B-H should help those Bošnjaks who are not religious or are not religious enough, to awake. Principally, the situation is still not good and I think that we have to find appropriate methods for spreading the correct teachings of Islam among Bosnian Muslims.”

Balkan Islamic fundamentalists are tightly bound to the Islamic fundamentalist’s network, which today exists around the world. The announcement of jihad, the holy war in B-H (religiously) obligates every Muslim in the world to join it. Even in the past, after the tendencies of Arab nationalism to separate from the Turkish influence, religious commands or fatwa’s used to be issued, which regarded the battles against Christians. One of the most significant fatwa’s was issued in Baghdad.[64] In the mentioned fatwa, it says “Muslims, wake up and forget your dissensions, revenge to the nonbelievers and pursue them from your land.”

Miroljub Jevtić explains: [65] “In order to understand why Arabs considered that Kosovo, Macedonia and other countries belong to them, we will say the following: ‘According to shari’a the value of a country will be the order that rules there. Because of that, once the shari’a legislation is presented in some territory, that country is forever Muslim, even if the vast majorities in it are non-Muslims”. Calling of Muslim fundamentalists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sandžak and Kosovo for Jihad in the beginning of the nineties, were sent to all Islamic fundamentalist circles, and was warmly accepted and supported by a big number of Muslim countries.

2.4 Period from the beginning of the civil war in B-H till today

During the trial process of Islamists, in 1993, when twelve Muslims from Bosnia and Herzegovina were sentenced to 90 years in prison in total, the phrase “ethnic cleansing” was used for the first time. Dr. Fuad Muhić, who was also the judge for Izatbegović for this process, alleged in the justification of the verdict that the members of the Islamic fundamentalists group, with Alija Izatbegović at the front, were upholding the thesis of an ethnically clean Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, this trial and the verdict were just the continuation of the activities for which Alija Izatbegović and those like-minded people were liable for and have served their sentences from the year 1946 – except that on this occasion, the convicts seated besides Alija Izatbegović, were also newcomers, all members of the “Young Muslims”.

During his studies in Belgrade in the beginning of the seventies, Alija Izatbegović met Elfatih Hassanein, an Islamic scholar studying medicine. Still during his studies, Hassanein was in touch with his colleagues from other Islamic countries[66], and together with Muslims from SFRJ, he propagated the idea of radical Islamic fundamentalism, emphasizing the importance of the Muslims from the Balkans for the establishment of the Umma or Islamic world community.

In the mid-seventies, a reorganization of the “Young Muslims” organization happened, as well as the spreading of the idea of Islamic fundamentalism, especially among the young in B-H. In this period, Alija Izatbegović writes his Islamic Declaration. The group of radical Islamists, together with Alija Izatbegović was led by Muhamed Jahić, Ismet Serdarević, Huso Živalj, Edhem Bičakčić, Meliha Salikbegović, Amila Omersoftić, father and son Halid and Hasan Čengić, brothers Džamaludin and Nenad Latić and others. This group established an organization the “Muslim Youth Association – MYA”, whose members were youngsters of the “Muslim Brothers”. In the beginning of the eighties, just before the trial, parts of the group’s members were visiting Iran. It is believed that on that occasion, members of the group completed training in the Najfabadi terrorist camp in the city Kom. This terrorist camp was under the command of Mula Haeri. For the operation of this camp, Islamists from so-called “third world countries” were recruited, e.g. countries where the Muslim population was not dominant.[67] Together with classic terrorist techniques, attendants were trained in the extreme religious ideology, whose purpose was “brainwashing”.

Financial and other aid for the operation of this group was mostly provided by so-called humanitarian organizations for Muslims, such as “TWRA” (Third World Relief Agency) with its headquarters in Vienna. This organization, which was later discovered to be a terrorist organization, was founded in 1987. The head of it was Elfatih al Hasanein,[68] a member of the Sudanese leading party “Islamic National Front”. This extreme fundamentalist party was founded by Dr. Hassan Abdallah Turabi,[69] a man who it is believed to be, based on his religious leanings, have created Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and (recently killed in Iraq) Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted and the most notorious terrorists of present.

Funds for working and functioning of “TWRA”[70] were acquired by donations from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Sudan, Brunei, Malaysia, and Pakistan. “TWRA” was maintaining close links with numerous radical Islamic organizations or particular fanatical people. One of the prominent Middle East Islamic fundamentalists was Sheikh Mohamed Al Ghazali who with his actions was behind the formation of the Islamic fundamentalists network in the Balkans. From the beginning of the eighties of last century until today, he maintained the connections with religious radical leaders of Muslims who lived in the territory of the Balkans and with his teachings; he signified the important role of Muslims from the Balkans in the Islamic world.

In his efforts to find, key people and organizations together with respective leaders with religious prefix who would support ideas of Islamic fundamentalism that Sheikh Mohamed Al Ghazali had, besides Elfatih al Hasanein who was the main executor, was Dr. Umair al Zubair.[71] The aim of the “TWRA” actions was indeed the territory of the Balkans and the Muslims who lived in that area. “TWRA” has played the key role in supplying weapons to Bosnian Islamists, despite the UN embargo. [72]

Insight of the “TWRA” documentation[73] corroborated that the key members of this organization were people who would largely by their activities lead to the beginning of the civil war in B-H. Due to their actions, the war in B-H from 1992-1995 took the character of a religious war e.g. jihad. According to the data of the Austrian police,[74] the following persons are responsible.

Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, an Egyptian radical imam, was found guilty for planning and organizing the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York in 1993. In “TWRA” documentation confiscated by the Austrian police, records that link this Islamic fundamentalist directly to “TWRA” were found. By these records, “TWRA” was supposed to be the distributor of video- and audio-tapes[75] containing speeches of Omar Abdel Rahman, and were to be sold or distributed among Mosques around Europe.

American jurisdictional bodies link Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman directly with Ayman al Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden. Besides Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, members of “TWRA” were Osama bin Laden, the most wanted terrorist today, who is suspected to be the financier, Irfan Ljevaković, Alija Izatbegović, Hasan Čengić, Džemal Merdan, Husein (Huso) Živalj, and Faris Nanić. Of this group, Hasan Čengić[76] and Džemal Merdan were in charge of the connections with Afghanistan and other mujaheddin movements. These connections date from the 1980s, at which time under the influence of the “Iranian Revolution”, members of the “Muslim Brothers of Bosnia and Herzegovina” used to leave for studies to that country or would meet with students who were coming to the former SFRJ to study.

This was not the case with the Iranian students, but also with others from the Islamic world. An example of this occurred in March 1982 when the informal leader of the Egyptian “Muslim Brothers” in exile Hassan Nasser, son of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the former Egyptian president and close friend of Josip Broz Tito, resided in the former SFRJ. Despite the fact that Egypt officially demanded from Interpol to hand over Hassan Nasser[77] to the country, Yugoslavian authorities responded that Hassan Nasser had never resided in SFRJ, what was untrue. [78] This Islamic fundamentalist was in charge of bringing to the territory of SFRJ, actually hiding ihvans – members of the “Muslim Brothers”, and jihad-organization from Egypt, whose members participated in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar al Sadat[79]. Members of this organization were massively relegated in Egypt and were prosecuted under death penalties. These people were publicly seen as students in SFRJ, but in reality, only a small number of them actually studied.

One of the key spots in the organizing and functioning of the Islamic fundamentalists’ network in the Balkans, and which was under direct influence of “TWRA” from Vienna belongs to Derviš Đurđević. He was the main tie between the organizations the “Muslim Brothers” and the “Young Muslims” in Sarajevo. Still during the foundation of “TWRA” in Vienna in 1987, Đurđević, together with twelve other Islamic fundamentalists, in the beginning of the ’80s, was arrested in B-H and sentenced to five years in prison. After serving his sentence, he left to go to Vienna. The reason for his arrest was, inter alia, the capture of his close friend Duha Abdel Fata, to whom Đurđević had rented the apartment in Sarajevo where Islamists from various meridians used to gather for so-called “schooling”. Duha Abdel Fata was arrested because of a flyer and pamphlet scattering which called for “Islamic revolution in the world”. The year after arresting Đurđević and Fata, Halil Mehtić was also arrested under the charge that he was spreading the ideas of Islamic fundamentalism and messages of the “Muslim Brothers” among Muslim believers in B-H. His first collaborator Halid Tulić succeeded to escape to Jordan.[80]

Bosnia and Herzegovina, just like the entire area of the Balkans, in the period between the two wars was the main scope of the operation of Islamic fundamentalists. Because of their actions and connections with the global network of Islamic fundamentalists, B-H and the entire Balkan region has become an unavoidable stop for numerous Islamic fundamentalists on their path to Europe. With a well-developed infrastructure, a huge amount of funds secured by Islamic countries, as well as Islamic fundamentalists’ general intentions to create an umma, members of the network considerably contributed to the rise of the bloody civil war led in B-H.

2.5 The New Islamic international

The Islamic international is nothing new, and the concept of “The New Islamic international” means the actions of various Islamic fundamentalist movements in modern conditions. The phrase is about not only the movements; various extreme Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organizations, but also the state-sponsors of Islamic fundamentalism which are Iran, Syria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other countries. That the “Islamic international” truly exists, and is sponsored by some Muslim countries, in the territory of the Balkans had become clear with the first appearance of the mujaheddins, who came from all over the world to fight a jihad in the beginning of the ‘90s. Causes of the “Islamic international” most often are cited as these factors:

- Islamic revolution in Iran and its export around the world;

- The “Muslim Brotherhood” with entirely radicalized approaches and specific ideology;

- Emergence of greater and greater number of various Islamic fundamentalist groups with their own interpretation of the Qur'an by the principle of “new-discovered Islam”;

- Islamic volunteers “mujaheddins” and their presence around the world;

- In addition, other events that followed such as the downfall of SSSR, the situation in the Middle East, worsened economic situation in many countries, etc.

The creation and consolidation of the “Islamic international” contributed to the spreading of the ideology of hatred by Islamic fundamentalists, and numerous battlefields, as the outcome of the conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims around the world. This mainly regards the clashes between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs, Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Kashmir, Chechnya, etc. On these battlefields, Islamic terrorists who were coming there from all parts of the world were drilled and trained. In this way, those who call themselves “mujaheddins” were becoming internationals from various locales. As an example, in Islamic circles, the war that was led in Afghanistan was perceived as “the holy war”. Because of these Islamic fundamentalists, who started arriving from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Pakistan and other countries. Civil war in B-H was treated in the same way. That is why it is not surprising that a large portion of mujaheddins who fought in B-H had come to that country with prior knowledge from various other wars, through which Islamic fundamentalists considered to fight a jihad.

Experiences from Afghanistan showed that despite many differences the “Islamic international” has colligated into one powerful organization whose linking factor was religion. Not only the terrorist organizations of Islamic orientation, but also bigger countries such as Egypt, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and others have shown a readiness to cooperate on the question which they saw as of the overall interest (helping Islamic brothers in trouble). As an example, the entire action on behalf of the Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan against the USSR led by Makatab al-Khidamat (МАК), together with Abdul Azam and Osama bin Laden on the front. MAK coordinated delivering to the “brothers” in Afghanistan, large portions of help and resources coming from the entire Muslim world, as well as the recruitment of Islamic fundamentalists.

With the help of the USA, Egypt as a state had an advantage in sending armament and instructors to Afghanistan. The entire action was performed in the spirit of Islamic solidarity, and experts from the Egyptian army were coming and training mujaheddins. Egypt and other Arab countries were sending, either secretly or publicly, their military experts to Afghanistan. The entire program started to grow to wider scales in the mid ‘80s, when thousands of Arabs of Islamic fundamentalist groups started to arrive to the battlefields and training camps in Afghanistan. A great number of Islamic terrorist organizations were sending their highly positioned members to missions called “Studies of jihad”.[81] Very soon after, as result of the presence of a big number of Islamic fundamentalists from all parts of the world in one place (Afghanistan), the “international jihad-organization” was founded, as a precedent of the “Islamic international”. The territories of Afghanistan and Pakistan were a solid stronghold of this organization for its operation around the world.

The idea of an all-Islamic brotherhood and need for organizing an Islamic terrorist network required for fighting jihad against all opponents of Islam was promoted in the Afghanistan conflict. By the conception of its creators, this terrorist network was supposed to gather all Muslims of the world, so that its operation will have a global character. A global scope is necessary in order to one day establish the world Muslim state in peoples mind, managed by the Qu’ran regulations. The striking core of the Islamic fundamentalist international consists of a chain of terrorist organizations, with “Al Qaeda” on the top. These organizations are supposed to be presented as protectors of all Muslims and their interests. In reality, the above mentioned terrorist organization’s activities including “Al Qaeda” are being covered by many secret services of Islamic countries.

War in B-H has shown, just like the one in Afghanistan, the unity of circles of Islamic fundamentalism. The possibility to build an Islamic state in the heart of Europe, based on the fundamentalist principles of Alija Izatbegović’s “Islamic Declaration”, is attractive enough for Islamists from all meridians of the world. The Islamic international has established specific forms of organizing in every segment, which will be further elaborated on in the following context. However if we pay attention only to how, for example, certain Muslim countries shared and each of them actively participated in the development of the Islamic fundamentalist’s network in the Balkans, then it becomes clear that this is a well organized network which covers all segments of subversive war fighting. Instructors (religious and terrorist) were arriving from Iran and Turkey, money came from Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Malaysia, Pakistan and Brunei, and mujaheddins – from Afghanistan.

Data and information available to the investigative bodies in different countries point to the degree to which Islamic jihad-terrorists are connected.[82] It is not only about the concept that underlines the way the terrorist network of Islamic fundamentalists in the Balkans is organized, and whose members are in constant relationships with a similar networks of terrorists, for example, in Central Asia. Security agencies in some Balkan countries have had the ability for some time now to track intensive contacts between groups of Islamic fundamentalists from the Balkans and their like-minded terrorists in Central Asia, including the Chinese province Xinjiang.

The model which is used to create a “clean Islamic state” in the territory of Central Asia is similar to the model, which was used when so called “green transversal”, was being shaped in the Balkans. A specialized and wider public is already well aware that Islamic jihad-warriors took part in instituting the terrorist network in the Balkans, and that their true intention is establishing an Islamic state ranging between: Albania, Kosovo, Raška, parts of Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The primary goal is creating prerequisites for the penetration of Islam’s extreme form in the heart of Europe and further towards the USA.

Similar intentions are held by religion and violence like-minded, who are trying to set up a unique Islamic state in Central Asia. The centers of Islamic terrorism which took part in creating “green transversal” in the Balkans, are active again, except their activity is focused in a different direction now. First, the word is about Islamic fundamentalist centers in Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and Afghanistan. In these mentioned actions, not only are members of extreme Islamic organizations taking part, but in these processes of spreading “the idea of Umma” and Islamic fundamentalism numerous Muslim countries actively participate.

In the framework of the mujaheddin units that fought in the Bosnia and Herzegovina region, regular units of the Iranian army participated, for example the Seventh Revolutionary Guardian Brigade, and also parts of special units of the Iranian secret service, VEVAK. During the civil war in B-H, in the beginning of the ‘90s, the Iranian secret service VEVAK deployed the entire agency of its network around Bosnian villages with the goal to support terrorist activities of Islamic fundamentalists. [83] Similar activities took place in the Central Asia region, where, active members of the Pakistani secret service (ISI) were spotted, apart from other secret services that operated there. This secret service is involved in establishing great number Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organizations in Central Asia. ISI is engaged in consolidating work and training for Islamists of various organizations. In this way, direct support was given to the terrorist organization the “Islamic armed movement” AIO, whose head is Muhamed Ibrahim al Makavi,[84] who, in order to cover his activities, has founded and led one so called “Humanitarian Organization” in Peshawar.

The secret service of Kyrgyzstan (KNB)[85] has identified in February 2003 the existence of a transnational Central Asian extreme group named LIVO, which was founded in May, 2001, under the sponsorship of Osama bin Laden and the organization “Al Qaeda”. The primary source of this information was Šerali Akbotojev,[86] Kyrgyz, one of the leading people in the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).[87] Akbotojev was arrested in Afghanistan in mid 2002, and then extradited to the capital city Biškek, where he was condemned to 25 years in prison. During the hearing in front of the investigative organs, Akbotojev admitted that in May 2001 Taliban leader Mula Muhamad Omar and Osama bin Laden formed a new international organization of Islamic fundamentalists, known as LIVO, whose goal was to “set free” Central Asia from “nonbelievers”. The meaning of term LIVO is unknown until today.

Akbotojev has defined the declared aim of LIVO as the “creation of a unique Islamic state which will in its principles comprise Kazahstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and the Chinese province of Xinjiang”. One of the founders of the organization LIVO and a close ally of Osama bin Laden, Juma Namangani[88] was nominated as head of LIVO. Besides being the head man, LIVO had also a supreme council in its structure, whose members were: Mula Muhamed Omar (Taliban’s – Afghanistan), Osama bin Laden, Takhir Juldešef (another IMU leader), Hasan Ujgur (one of the master leaders of separatists from Xinjiang) and two Taliban commandants known by the names Ubajdolo and Ajmani.[89]

Essentiality all of the LIVO organizations activities is to speed up and organize training of terrorists and their allocation around Central Asia. The principle of their acts comes down to the recruitment of the local population. During the process of recruitment, Islamic fundamentalists provide a certain amount of money as compensation to the families, which serves as a stimulation for joining. After the recruitment and training, a command cadre is appointed for each unit. Units are allocated with no distinction regarding what regions recruits are coming from. After completing the training in which the main segment is religious indoctrination, members of these units are going back to the areas where they came from,[90] where later, secret distribution of weapons is performed.

Possession of weapons in the Central Asia regions is a practice, and weaponry is bought in the same way as any other kind of goods in bazaars. Depending on the situation, certain units are sent to perform militant actions wherever they are needed, and it is mostly to Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir, or Bosnia. During the inquisition, Akbotojev confirmed several times that the biggest number of LIVO members at this moment are mujaheddins from Uzbekistan, but that soon after, members from all Central Asia started joining, including Arabs, better known as “Afghanistans”. During Akbotojev’s arrestment, LIVO already had a widely outspread network across Central Asia. LIVO members survived the American attack on Afghanistan and cogent indications exist which imply that this terrorist organization will continue to grow as an active armed formation, organized as it is mentioned before, as a serious threat to peace and stability in Central Asia.

A similar situation was also recorded in the Balkan areas when Albanians from Kosovo and Metohija and Muslims from Raška (Novopazarski Sandžak) were participating in war clashes in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, in order to attain certain fighting proficiencies, which later were used on other occasions, especially when performing terrorist actions in Kosovo and Metohija. In Kosovo,[91] with the help of Islamic fundamentalists’ terrorists sourcing from Islamic countries, the first mujaheddin unit called “Abu Bakir Sadik” was formed. The unit’s staff was stationed in the location called Donja Prekaza, and the unit itself numbered about 120 mujaheddins from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Albania, Macedonia and Iran. The commander of one section of this unit was Abu Ismailji, a former member of the “El mujahid” squad from B-H. The main instructor of the “Abu Bakir Sadik” unit was Abu Abdurahman Enigmani from Syria, who during the war in B-H was also the main commander of the mujaheddin camp for training in B-H together with Jamel Lamrani[92], an Algerian who was also a representative of the “Humanitarian” Organization “Igasa”. One of the mujaheddins in the group that arrived from B-H to Kosovo and Metohija was Abu Hamza,[93] a Palestinian, who was in charge of all activities linked to the transfer of mujaheddins from B-H to Kosovo and Metohija – so, it was arranged Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and at the end Macedonia. One of the roles of the mujaheddins was also the training of Albanian rebels in Kosovo and Metohija, who often used terrorism as the method of their battle.[94]

Mujaheddins have set up a unit in Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose leader was Muhamed Hadafan Gamili and whose spiritual leader wasSheik Ahmed Ali Sedan. Macedonia was the main target of mujaheddins and terrorists of “Al Qaeda”, who were aiming militarily to invade from the direction of Albania, as much as they could of this country with the help of local Albanians. One of the key logistic men was Seljadin Džeza, better known under the nickname Hodža who also fought as a mujaheddin in B-H and Chechnya[95].

The history of terrorism, as well as classical forms of this criminal act, was a prerequisite for the emergence of a new form of terrorist organizing. The period from World War II until today was studied with a special analysis of the Islamic fundamentalists units (Nazi “SS handžar divison” and “SS Skenderbeg” division) which were created during World War II. These units and their members were important actors in promoting the idea of Islamic fundamentalism and achieving ideological goals through violence in the period between World War II and the Civil War in B-H (1992-95). In the arisen situation, in cooperation with likeminded people from around the world, Islamic fundamentalists from B-H are internationalizing the question of Muslims in B-H. Aid that was arriving from the Muslim world was of a religious and political nature, but also of terrorist-logistical nature.

Islamic fundamentalists were practicing and convoying their ideology of violence by all possible means. The processes and acts by which Islamic fundamentalists circles reached their peak followed the revolution in Iran. The main goal of Islamic fundamentalists was the establishment of a Muslim state in the heart of Europe, which would be regulated by Islamic standards. Whether it was about political activities or various forms of violence, the end sanctifies the means. Civil war in B-H between 1992 and 1995 showed that Islamic fundamentalists have organized entire terrorist-guerilla units that arrived from Afghanistan in order to fight in a jihad together with other like-minded people. During the civil war, the first nucleuses of terrorist cells of Islamic fundamentalists in the territory of B-H had been established with their specific goals that are reflected in these acts. These specific goals are not only ethnic and cultural-geographical. The fact is that these are completely new ways of creating a global terrorist network which we call today “Al-Qaeda”, or more precisely its branch in B-H. The transformation of guerilla units of Islamic fundamentalists into terrorist cells capable of conducting terrorist attacks at anytime and anywhere in the world is particularly interesting to monitor.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, just like the entire area of the Balkans, in the period between the two wars was the main scope of operation of Islamic fundamentalists.. As result of their actions and connections with the global network of Islamic fundamentalists, B-H and the entire Balkan region has become an unavoidable stop for numerous Islamic fundamentalists on their path to Europe. With well-developed infrastructure, huge amount of funds secured by Islamic countries, as well as with Islamic fundamentalists’ general intentions to create an umma, members of the network considerably contributed to the rise of the bloody civil war led in B-H.

The Islamic international is nothing new, and the concept of“The New Islamic international” means the actions of various Islamic fundamentalist movements in modern conditions. The word is about not only the movements; various extreme Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organizations, but also the states-sponsors of Islamic fundamentalism which are Iran, Syria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other countries. That the “Islamic international” truly exists, and that it is sponsored by some Muslim countries, in the territory of the Balkans, became clear with the first appearance of mujaheddins, who came from all over the world to fight a jihad in the beginning of the ‘90s.

The creation and consolidation of the “Islamic international” contributed to the spreading of the ideology of hatred by Islamic fundamentalists, and on numerous battlefields, as the outcome of the conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims around the world. This is in regards mainly to the clashes between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs, Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Kashmir, Chechnya etc. On these battlefields, Islamic terrorists who were coming there from all parts of world were drilled and trained. In this way, those who call themselves “mujaheddins” were becoming internationals from various locales, especially from the one in B-H.

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[30] Attachment, photo no. 1.

[31] “WE REVEAL the trial process in Sarajevo of four captives out of 19 members of CRB, emigrant Bugojanska group which entered Yugoslavia in 1972”. Zvonimir Despot, 24. 5. 2005. Večernji list, Zagreb, Croatia.

[32] Adolf Andrić, Ilija Glavaš, Djuro Horvat, Vejsil Keškić, Viktor Kancijanić, Petar Bakula, Ludvig Pavolović, Mirko Vlasnović, Ilija Lovrić, Filip Bešlić, Stipe Ljubaš,l Vlado Miletić, Vinko Knez, Ivan Prlić, Nikola Antunac, Vilim Eršek, Vidak Buntić.

[33] Jovan Cvijić, Speaches and Articles, Collected works, Book 3, (volume 1), Serbian Academy of Sciences and Art, Belgrade, 1987.

[34] Ante Herceg and Mustafa Banović, “Development of Balkan Peoples”, jun/july 2002, chapter: “History of Bosnians Serbs”, Scientific journal of southeastern Europe history, pg. 244-249.

[35] BBC World Service, Bush House, Strand, London WC2B 4PH, UK.

[36] Vasiljevilć, Hadzi Jovan, Muslims of our blood in south Serbia, “St. Sava”, Belgrade, 1924. pg. 2.

[37] In order to satisfy religious wants of people of muslim religion, Ante Pavelić ordered building the mentioned mosque. In order to strenthten his influence over muslims even more, Pavelić put Adem-aga Mesić in position of his helper, in old times was called procurator.

[38] Alija Izetbegović is war criminal that succeeded to avoid justice thanks to political circumstanced of that time. Crimes for which he is responsible are linked to the civil war in B-H in 1992. He is personally responsible for tens concentration camps in B-H, as well as for bringing Islamic terrorists in B-H. This prominent Islamic fundamentalist was born on 8. 8. 1925. in Bosanski Šamac, small town which was at that time part of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. In his birth certificate is recorded that Izetbegović family was alleged as Serbs.

[39] The delegation was consisted of: the big mufti of Mostar, Omer Dzabić, Ibrahim Fejić, hadzi-Ahmed Karab and Oman Šehić.

[40] In 1943, big mufti of Jerusalem, El Huseini received from Hitler personally honorary title “SS gruppenführer”.

[41] These cultural-historical swindles and malpractices are, unfortunately accepted by numerous muslim intellectuals from B-H, and as a result, this Nazi propaganda and ambition has remained active in so called “muslim intellectual circles” in B-H till today.

[42] German forces were under the command of general Paulo Bader, who was at the top of the 21^st mountain corpus which included: 1. the Mountain division; 2. 100^th Jaeger division; 3. 297^th Infantry division.

[43] “ the “Young Muslims” is the organization similar to “As-Subhan Al-Muslimun” or “Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimun”. One of the five key points of the “Young Muslims” program is “an insisting on unity of muslim world though the creation of the big muslim state on an international level”.

[44] On the first multi party democratic elections in B-H in the beginning of the year 1990, the majority of the votes of muslim population of B-H has got tradesman Fikret Abdić. However, avaling himselif with the election teft and manipulations Alija Izatbegović has secured his place as the president of B-H.

[45] The entry of criminal denouncement against Alija Izatbegović, Naser Obrić, and Sefer Halilovi, was submited by the foreign comission of law experts of Republika Srpska in 1996, to the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.

[46] Alija Izatbegović: His background and philosophies. A briefing paper produced for Members for the 1992/3 Session of the British Parliament, Monday 21 December, 1992.

[47] Bodansky, Yossef, Target America, SPI books, 1993, pg. 2–3.

[48] Partnering for the enemy acts, article 133, state 2 of Criminal law of former SFRJ and criminal act of the enemy propaganda of article 133, state 1 of Criminal law.

[49] Briefing paper produced for Members for the 1992/3 Session of the British Parliament, Monday, December 21, 1992.

[50] Far more radical in its appearance and views is organization “Young muslims” to which Alija Izatbegović himself belonged. This extreme Islamic organization bases its standpoints on the thesys that islam is philosopphicaly and religiously superior religion comparing to other religions. Islam is offered as an optimal – third – way for public and social arrangement. Because if this kind of social ground, formed by the acts of the organization like this one and ones with similar orientation, various radical Islamic orientations options have found their sympathizers in B-H and Balkans, whose ideologically-pragmatic range of action spreads from vahabism, Islamic revolution of Iranian type, all the way until talibanism.

[51] Ataturk, the creator of the modern Turkish state, has introduced and implemented European laws in Turkey (by the Swiss legislation model), and Turkey itself he saw as the strong national state.

[52] See: Trifunović, Darko, Islamic Fundamentalists, Global Network - Modus Operandi - Model Bosnia, Republican Secretariat for Relations with the International Crimes Tribunal in Hague & Investigation of War Crimes, Banja Luka, 2002. In contrast to the countries where they are minority, in the countries where they are majority, Islamic fanatics are discriminating people who belong to other religions by initiating the Laws of Sheriyat and other methods, affecting the conditions of non-muslim people’s life impossible, and are causing them to move out, or are affecting the non-muslim population to decrease in number until their complete disappearance.

[53] Miloev Velko, Салата од глухарцета, Босна между две войни, София, 1999, pg. 79–80.

[54] Jevtić Miroljub, Jihad- modern jihad as a war, New book, Belgrade, pg. 41. Prof. dr. Miroljub Jevtić is seen as one of the best experts of islamic fundamentalism in Serbia.

[55] One of the first announcements of Jihad, “the holy war” against non-muslims, for B-H was in Istanbul in year 1804. With that fatva, muslims around the Balkans were called upon to go in Jihad against rebellious Serbs, and that they (vassals) may be killed like foreign enemies.

[56] Serbian Christian Orthodox Church was not familiar with the possibility that someone can be Serb if he is of other religion. In contrast to the orthodoxy, the Catholic Church was permitting this option.

[57] These terms were used by Omar Abdel Rahman, at the time when he was lecturing at the University “ Al Azhar” in Cairo. This blind sheik was teaching the “Kuran interpretation”.

[58] Gabriel A. Mark, Islam and Terrorism, Charisma House, Lake Mary, 2002, pg. 34.

[59] Hazif Muhamed Pandza and Džemaludin Čaušević, honorable Quran, Reality, Zagreb. 1978, 25/210, pg. 47.

[60] Ibid., pg. 44.

[61] Attachment, photo no. 2.

[62] Elfatih Hassanein is a member of Sudanese National Islamic front. On the behalf of this party, whose members are mostly Islamic fundamentalists, he was in charge of carrying out the politics of that party in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. In the year 1987 he establishes so called: “humanitarian” organization under the name TWRA located in Vienna. The organization was dealing with illegal import of weapons to B-H, and was operating from the positions of Islamic fanaticism, while supporting, among the others, muslim terrorists around the world.

[63] Newspaper Gazi Husrev-beg, which used to be published during 1994 in Kuala Lumpur.

[64] Jevtić Miroljub, Jihad, Modern Jihad as a war, New book, Belgrade, pg. 49.

[65] Ibid., pg.49,footnote.

[66] In that time SFRJ was one of the leaders od the Movement of nonaligned, and for that reason a big number of young people have studied in Belgrade and other university centers, especially youngsters from Islamic countries.

[67] Bodansky, Yossef, Target America, SPI, 1993, pg. 82.

[68] Elfatih al Hasanein obtained diplomatic passport from Sudan after the establishment of “TWRA” and was put in the position of Cultural attaché of the embassy of Sudan in Vienna.

[69] Dr. Hassan Abdallah Turabi is a professor in the Law University in Khartum. He devoted his whole life to the methods of bringing out sheriyat in muslim countries, as well as the battle against secular muslim regimes. He is considered to be very dangerous Islamic fanatic, who have thought the entire generations of students, among the other, the hatred against others (non-muslims).

[70] Attachment, document 1.

[71] Dr. Umair al Zubair is known as “the friend” of Bosnia. The friend means the supporter of the idea of religious Islamic fundamentalism. Together with sheik Saleh al Suhaibani and Alija al Džurejasi, dr. Zubair have played the key role in helping to build the terrorist infrastructure of Islamic fundamentalists on Balkans.

[72] Attachment, document 2.

[73] The documentation of Ministry of Interior of Austria, the Counterterrorism Department, 5. September 1995

[74] Ibid.

[75] In 1996, tapes were distributed, containing speeches of this islamist which stress the central role of B-H in spreading islam towards the West.

[76] Islamic spiritual leader who used his connections with Iran in order to bring vast amounts of veapon in B-H despite the UN embargo.

[77] Hassan Nasser was convicted in Egypt as one of the planners of the assassination Egyptian president Anwar Al Sadat in 1981.

[78] Free Bosnia, no. 254, 27. September 2001. By available data, Hassan Nasser was first stationed in a house in village Mošćenička Draga, and then in an apartmant in Zagreb.

[79] Rosie George, The Directory of International Terrorism, Paragon House, New York, 1987, pg. 254, 255.

[80] Ibid.

[81] Bodansky, Yossef, Target America, SPI Books, 1993, pg. 141.

[82] Data that the Secretariat of Republic of Srpska Government fot Relations with the International Crimes Tribunal & Investigation of War Crimes, the data which is in hands of “FBI”, “CIA”. FSB, and some other specialized institutions like JKB, ISSA, ICT, and others.

[83] Darko Trifunović et al., Islamic Fundamentalists, Global Network and Modus Operandi: Model Bosnia, Buerou od Government of RS, Banja Luka, 2002, pg. 60, 61.

[84] Muhamed Ibrahim al Makavi is former colonel of Egyptian army, who arrived to Pakistan in 1989.

[85] National security committee (KNB) is national secret service of Kyrgyzstan, responsible to the president of the country which is represented on the cabinet-level through the chief of KNB.

[86] Šerali Akbotojev, 33 years old, joined IMU in August 1999, when part of IMU ocuppied area of Batken, Kyrgyzstan, and collected local young men to join islamic revolution.

[87] Organization IMU was close ally of “Al Qaeda”. During 1990s IMU has organized several terrorist attacks within Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in an attempt to set up extreme muslim regime in those countries by Taliban model in Afghanistan.

[88] Juma Namangani was, by some sources, killed at the end of 2001 in Afghanistan, where he fought on Taliban’s side.

[89] International Strategic Study Association, GIS, Special report about organization LIVO.

[90] It often happens that these trained terrorist are sent to different war zones around the world in order to attain additional training.

[91] Attachment, photo no. 3.

[92] Jamel Lamrani has came to Kosovo and Metohija from station in Konjice, were yonder mujaheddin were situated. Even though he was representative of “Humanitarian” organization “Igasa” which finance “Al Qaeda”, it is believed that Jamrani is also connected with terrorist organization “Džemijet el Furkan“, which also practised funding “Al Qaeda”.

[93] Former mujaheddin leader of extreme Islamic community in Donja Bočinja – he was identified as key leader of vahabi movement.

[94] Attachment, photo no. 4.

[95] Mujahedin In Macedonia, or, an Enormous Embarrassment For the West, by Christopher Deliso, March 12, 2002 http://antiwar.com/orig/deliso36.html