Bosnia potential hotbed for terrorists: security chief

Bosnia potential hotbed for terrorists: security chief
Agence France Presse (English) - September 3, 2006 Sunday 2:48 PM GMT

SARAJEVO, Sept 3 2006 - The head of Bosnia's security agency has warned that the country could become a hotbed for terrorists, in an interview published on Sunday.

"I do not really believe that there will be some (terrorist) offensive actions on the Bosnian territory, but I am much more convinced that Bosnia is a potential terrorists' hotbed," Sredoje Novic, director of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), told the Nezavisne Novine daily.

Novic pointed out that hundreds of fighters from Muslim countries had joined the mainly Muslim Bosnian army during the country's 1992-1995 war, and said it was not known how many of them had gained Bosnian citizenship.

Some could have acquired false documents or be linked with terrorist activities, he said.

"Thus various terrorist organisations in the world could be very interested to create in Bosnia a base from where future terrorists could be recruited," he added.

Although under the peace deal which ended the war all foreign fighters were ordered to leave, some stayed after obtaining Bosnian citizenship, mostly by marrying local women.

Their presence remains a constant worry for Bosnian authorities especially since some Bosnian Muslims, mostly followers of moderate Islam, have started to embrace a more radical version practiced by the foreigners.

Novic also warned that in Bosnia there were "some organisations which one could seriously suspect nourish extremist (Islamic) attitudes."

"Such suspicious organisations should be monitored closely by the authorities," he said.

During Bosnia's war a number of humanitarian organisations from Muslim countries opened branch offices in the Balkan state.

The local branches of several charities were closed in 2002 by Bosnian authorities as part of a crackdown on groups suspected of financing terrorist activities. The authorities implemented stricter controls on others.

In July, a trial opened in Sarajevo against three men accused of planning a bomb attack in an unidentified European country because of its military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A Swede of Bosnian origin, Mirsad Bektasevic, a Danish-born Turkish citizen, Abdulkadir Cesur, and Bajro Ikanovic, a Bosnian, were indicted in April by the Bosnian court on charges of planning a terrorist attack in Bosnia or in some other European country.

Some 40 percent of Bosnia's 3.8 million inhabitants are Muslims. Orthodox Christian Serbs represent about 31 percent, while Roman Catholic Croats account for around 10 percent.

The country is divided into two largely autonomous entities, each with their own parliament, government and police force: the Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation. The security agency, as part of the federal authority, operates in both.