BALKANS: Sentences Bring the Spotlight on Islamists

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Jan 23 2007 (IPS) - The sentencing of three young Muslims to a total of 40 years in prison has raised new concern over the spread of militant Islam in the Balkans.

The three Muslims, two of them Bosniaks, were sentenced for planning a suicide attack on European targets to pressure governments to withdraw forces from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The trial was the first terrorism-related conviction in Bosnia-Herzegovina under a new law. It came after many people have been expressing fears that this tiny nation of four million, where about half the population is Sunni Muslim, could become a springboard for terrorist activities within Europe.

The court sentenced Bosnian-born Swede Mirsad Bektasevic (19) to 15 years and four months in prison, Denmark-based Turk Abdulkadir Cesur (21) to 13 years and four months, and Bosnian Bajro Ikanovic (29) to eight years in prison.

They were convicted for their intention to “carry out a terrorist attack on the territory of Bosnia or another European country,” judge Mehmed Sator said.

The judge added that the convicted men aimed to “force authorities of Bosnia or of other countries to pull their forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The court revealed that Bektasevic was code-named Maximus, and that it was his voice on a video tape that explained how 20 kilos of explosives, suicide belts and other material impounded by police at the time of the arrest would be used “against those who are killing our brothers and Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“Brothers are preparing for an attack,” he said in the video that was presented in the court.

It was to be a suicide attack, the judge added. Bektasevic had made a will, leaving 500,000 Swedish Krona (71,000 dollars) to “some military organisations, including one which is believed to be a branch of al-Qaeda.”

‘Maximus’ was mentioned last year in a Croatian and U.S. intelligence 252-page report on potentially dangerous Islamic groups in Bosnia. He was described as an Internet recruiter for young Muslims to join the insurgency in Iraq.

Bektasevic had also visited the former leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and run one of his websites. Al-Zarqawi was killed last year.

Excerpts from the intelligence report published in Bosnian media suggest that the recruitment drive might have begun as long as five years ago, when Arab militants ran up against tough post-9/11 security obstacles.

“They judge it is high time their job on this territory should be taken over by new local forces,” a published excerpt from the report says. “People who are born here and live here have an advantage which would make their job easier. By their appearance, they are less obvious.”

Bosnia’s minister for security Barisa Colak acknowledged the existence of the intelligence report, but said authorities “had no concrete evidence that recruitment efforts were widespread.” But, he added, “we have to be extremely careful and serious and not miss anything.”

Many Muslim fighters entered Bosnia at the time of the Balkans war that broke up old Yugoslavia between 1992 and 1995. They helped local, mostly secular Muslims fight against Serbs and Croats, but introduced demanding new customs and regulations in return.

Apart from helping in battles, their aim was to help Bosnian Muslims “return to real Islam,” one of them, Ali Hammad, told local media in a recent interview.

A strong influence of Islamic countries became evident in wartime and post-war Bosnia, with the largest Muslim countries providing aid and spreading “the wisdom of real Islam,” as Hammad put it.

Several Saudi and Iranian charities that began to function in Bosnia since 1992 were later closed under pressure from the international community.

But a new neighbourhood in Sarajevo with a huge King Fahd mosque is causing concern among many locals. It was built by the Saudi royal family in 2000 and is said to be the seat of the strict Wahhabi Sunni sect, believed to be increasingly influential in Bosnia.

Wahhabism is an 18th century reform movement aiming to restore Islam to its pure form by purging it of foreign and corrupting influences or innovations.

People attending the mosque refrain from describing themselves as Wahhabis, but their shortened trousers and their beards set them apart from more ordinary looking believers who are clean-shaven and can wear jeans.

Tunisian-born Abu Hamza, leader of Wahhabi Muslims in Bosnia, who speaks on behalf of former Islamic fighters who married Bosnian girls and stayed on after the war, urges Bosnian Muslims to “return to genuine Islam” in his interviews with local media.

A special Commission for Revision of Citizenship is at present reviewing the cases of all foreigners who turned into Bosniaks after 1992, with the aim of revoking the citizenship of those seen as terrorist suspects by international intelligence agencies.

Head of the commission Vjekoslav Vukovic says 300 citizenships have been revoked so far. Vukovic has said the Commission will demand extension of its mandate beyond February, when it is due to end its work.

“There’s a need for that,” Vukovic told a local paper. “We have so many documents to check and to compare – there are some forged papers, people who were on the UN or international ‘black lists’ as terrorist suspects or security threats.” (END/IPS/EU/IP/CR/HD/VZ/SS/07)