MILITARY SPY CHIEF SAYS AL

MILITARY SPY CHIEF SAYS AL-QA'IDAH ACTIVE IN KOSOVO, MACEDONIA
B92 - February 1, 2004

Belgrade, 1 February: The head of Serbia-Montenegro's military intelligence claimed in comments published Sunday (1 February) that Usamah Bin-Ladin's Al-Qa'idah and other terrorist groups are present in the Balkans and planning to increase their activity there.

In an interview with the official Tanjug news agency, Colonel Momir Stojanovic also claimed that the ultimate aim of Al-Qa'idah and other extremist Islamic groups is to carve out an independent Muslim state in the Balkans.

"We have information that Al-Qa'idah has strongholds in Kosovo, northern Albania and that they are active in western Macedonia," Stojanovic, the head of the Military Security Agency of Serbia-Montenegro's army, said. All areas are heavily populated by ethnic Albanians, who are mostly Muslims. "The strategic aim of the Muslim extremists in the area is to create an Islamic state in the Balkans", which would include Muslim-dominated areas in the region, Stojanovic added.

There was no immediate comment on Stojanovic's claims from UN-run Kosovo or Albania, but the Macedonian Defence Ministry said it had no evidence of any Al-Qa'idah on its territory. Claims that Islamic terrorists are present in the Balkans have surfaced before. Serbian officials have repeatedly said that ethnic Albanian nationalists have established close ties with radical Islamic groups and that extremist fighters fought Serb troops during the Kosovo war in 1998-99.

In neighbouring Bosnia, rumours have also surfaced of Al-Qa'idah activity, but the international peacekeepers stationed there since the end of the country's 1992-95 war have never found any such evidence. During the Bosnian war, Serb leaders claimed they were fighting to keep Muslims from establishing an Islamic regime in the former Yugoslavia. Bosnian Muslim leaders dismissed those claims as absurd, arguing that their people are secular and European.

Stojanovic also predicted that terrorist activity in the Balkans, including Serbia-Montenegro, would increase in the "upcoming period".

Source: Radio B92 text web site, Belgrade, in English 1508 gmt 1 Feb 04

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