US ASKS UN TO ADD THREE ISLAMIC ORGANIZATIONS
IN BOSNIA TO TERROR SUSPECT LIST
BBC Monitoring - May 16, 2004 / Dani - May 14, 2004
"Muslims Road", published by Bosnian newspaper Dani on 14 May
On 6 May 2004, the US Treasury Department asked the UN Sanctions Committee to
add the names of three more organizations to the "list of terrorists connected
with Usamah Bin-Ladin, Al-Qa'idah and the Taleban". Those organizations are
Dzemijjetul Furqan, Al-Haramayn Al-Masjed Al-Aqsa, and Taibah International Aid
Agency. The request lists the addresses of these organizations in Sarajevo,
Visoko and Zenica.
According to the publicly given explanation on Furqan, "information shows that
this non-governmental organization had close ties to and shared an office with
the Global Relief Foundation and was sponsored primarily by the Bosnian office
of the Al-Haramayn Foundation." At the same time it is claimed that individuals
working for Furqan were frequently involved in suspicious activities, including
surveillance of the buildings of the US embassy and the UN Mission in Sarajevo.
"Although Furqan allegedly stopped working in 2002, its two successor
organizations, Sirat and Istikamet, have continued to act in its name," states
the US Treasury Department's explanation for its decision.
Camp with taste for crime
Dzemijjetul Furqan was founded in 1997 by a "group of young Bosnian Muslims in
the city of Sarajevo". It was registered as a citizens' association "to uphold
the truth and to suppress lies" at the Bosnia-Hercegovina Federation's Ministry
of Justice, with the goal of "affirming Islam in these territories". The
association's activities then expanded from Sarajevo to the other regions of B-H
through the opening of offices in Zenica, Zavidovici and Konjic; a club in
Ilijas; and a camp in Falanovo Brdo, near Ostrosac on Jablanicko Lake.
The association organized lectures in its offices and distributed them over the
Internet, broadcast programmes over Radio Naba and Radio Hayat, printed flyers
and books, distributed audio and video cassettes, and carried out other
humanitarian, educational and sports activities. Its "summer encounters" in the
camp on Falanovo Brdo assembled "several hundred visitors from B-H and
neighbouring states". The camp gathered diverse groups of orphans, high school
students, university students and women, and was "heard about" in the Bosnian
public after one of its alumni - Muamer Topalovic - committed a triple murder in
the Andjelic house and then gravely wounded Marinko Andjelic, on Christmas Eve
in 2002, in the village of Kostajnica.
An audit by the Financial Police determined that the Al-Haramayn Foundation
financed the organization of the camp with a donation of 108,000 (B-H) marks. At
these meetings, Shaykh Nasser, director of the High Saudi Committee for Aid to
B-H, spoke to a "select group" about the problems of dawa (Islamic missionary
work). Sfor (NATO-led Stabilization Force) monitored and checked on the work of
this camp because of the suspicion that terrorist training was involved, but
there was no evidence of that.
The United States and Saudi Arabia froze the assets of the Bosnian office of Al-Haramayn
on 11 March 2002, stating that it was connected with the Egyptian terrorist
group Al-Gama'at Al-Islamiyya. Then, on 18 October 2002, the United States also
declared as a terrorist organization the Global Relief Foundation (GRF), an
organization that had been registered with the B-H authorities at the same
address as Dzemijjetul Furqan. In a statement for Dani, Nedim Karacic, as
Furqan's representative, stated that it was a false registration for the GRF.
"Someone from that organization asked someone from our association if he could
report our address in order to receive mail. The person from our association
permitted it, entirely privately, without the knowledge of the association,"
said Karacic.
Bin-Ladin's envoy in Hadzici
In the investigation after the triple murder in the village of Kostajnica, near
Konjic, Furqan's representatives denied that the murderer, Muamer Topalovic, was
a member of their organization. However, instead of Furqan (one of the names for
the Koran and Chapter 25 of the Koran), they registered the Sirat association (sirat
- the bridge over hell, narrow as the blade of a sword, over which only true
believers can pass) and Istikamet (istikamet -persistence on the right path),
with similar goals.
The US investigation was continued in both B-H and the United States. Findings
from this investigation show that the connections between the now-banned Islamic
organizations GRF and Taibah were not accidental. Those findings were used, in
part, in the US trial of Abdurrahman Alamoudi under indictment for money
laundering and prohibited transactions with foreign states. Alamoudi was one of
the leaders of the American Task Force for Bosnia (ATFB), the US national
coordinator of Islamic organizations, which lobbied actively in the US during
the war in B-H and aided Bosniaks. Alamoudi, among other things, was also deputy
director of Taibah International Aid Agency, whose founders included Abdullah
Bin-Ladin, a nephew of Usamah Bin-Laden. Taibah had offices in both Bosnia and
Albania and is now registered in Hadzici.
The federal police in Sarajevo searched the Taibah office on 13 December 2001.
The American FBI interviewed Ali Hamid El-Tayeba, who was the acting director of
Taibah in B-H at that time, in Sarajevo on 15 December 2001. In this interview
El-Tayeba said that Taibah's US office would decide who would be the next
director of this organization in Sarajevo. He also stated that Mohammed El-Nagmy,
as Taibah's employee, was simultaneously GRF's Bosnian representative.
El-Nagmy confirmed that Taibah's chief leader ordered him to work simultaneously
for GRF. Also questioned then was Taibah's bookkeeper, Tarik El-Mastry, who
explained that he only knew about small monetary transactions, but did not know
about international transactions. After that, another Taibah employee, Mustafa
Ait-Idir was questioned on 21 February 2002. According to the FBI report on this
interrogation, Mustafa Ait-Idir said that Taibah actually represented the
interests of GRF in B-H, after which the Bosnian authorities terminated its
activities. Mustafa Ait-Idir also said that another Taibah employee (Mohammad
Ibrahim) was assisting GRF. Mustafa Ait-Idir was one of the six members of the
so-called "Algerian group" deported to the US military investigative prison in
Cuba.
Therefore, the offices of neither Furqan nor Taibah have been banned over their
connections with the GRF, the organization whose co-founder, Rabih Haddad, was
deported from the US to Lebanon. According to the US government's explanation,
Haddad was also a member of MAK (Makhtab Al-Khidamat), an organization in
Pakistan during the 1980s that was a precursor of today's Al-Qa'idah. GRF is
also suspected of connections with those accused of the attacks on the US
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, with the Taleban, and of weapons shipments to
Kashmir.
Reward for banker
This organization is well known in Sarajevo under its French acronym FSM
(Foundation Secours Mondial) and even today in the Kosevo Hospital compound it
is possible to see the ambulances that they donated. GRF opened its European
section under the French name FSM in 1994 and became involved in the Balkans at
the proposal of Nabil Sayadi (Abu Zeinab). According to available information,
in 1995 GRF gave the FSM 60,000 dollars for humanitarian aid to B-H and gave
313,000 dollars the next year.
"All the money that GRF transferred to the region since 1995 passed through my
hands or with my knowledge," said Sayadi in one of GRF's statements to the
court. The Spanish indictment of Al-Qa'idah mentions Sayadi as both the director
of FSM and as a mujahidin in Bosnia. Judge Baltasar Garzon states that Sayadi
was in contact with the head of Al-Qa'idah's Spanish cell and that he received
230,000 euros in donations from persons later indicted in Spain. Afterward
Sayadi wrote that he had known those donors for years and that he was shocked if
it turns out they had any connection whatsoever with Al-Qa'idah.
Al-Haramayn and Al-Masjed Al-Aqsa Charity Foundation is the third organization
cited in this US government decision. This organization is also suspected of
extending financial support to Furqan: "The Bosnian part of this organization
has significant financial connections with the former coordinator of Saudi aid
to B-H." His name is Wa'el Hamza Julaidan and he is on the list of persons for
whom the US Defence Secretary is offering a reward for information in its
anti-terrorist campaign in B-H. Julaidan was the co-owner of companies and banks
in Sarajevo. The Al-Haramayn and Al-Masjed Al-Aqsa organization was identified
earlier as the founder of a private school and children's village in Mojmilo.
This organization has a telephone listed with B-H Telecom at the address of the
school and the home, but the Federal Defence Ministry lists Al Walidein-Gazzaz
as the founder of the school, according to the founder of this organization,
Saudi businessman Husayn Bakri Gazzaz.
The US earlier named three organizations that acted in B-H as sponsors of
terrorism: Benevolence International Foundation (BIF), Global Relief Foundation
(GRF) and Al-Haramayn Foundation, and two local organizations - Bosnian Ideal
Future (BIF) and Vezir, including its director, Safet Durguti.
(Box, p. 19) Addresses under embargo
Dzemijjetul Furqan; Sirat; Istikamet:
Put Mladih Muslimana (Young Muslims Road) 30a
71000 Sarajevo, B-H
Strossmayerova 72
Zenica, B-H
Muhameda Hadzijahica 42
Sarajevo, B-H
Al-Haramayn and Al-Masjed Al-Aqsa Charity Foundation:
Hasiba Brankovica 2A
Sarajevo, B-H
Taibah International:
Avde Smajlovica 6,
Sarajevo, B-H
Tabhanska 26
Visoko, B-H
Velika Cilna Ulica 3
Visoko, B-H
Tabhanska Ulica 26
Sarajevo, B-H
Source: Dani, Sarajevo, in
Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 14 May 04 p 18-19
Copyright 2004 Financial Times Information
All rights reserved
Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
Copyright 2004 BBC Monitoring/BBC
BBC Monitoring International Reports
Posted for Fair Use only.