BOSNIANS REPORTEDLY RECRUITED TO JOIN "WHITE" AL-QA'IDAH
FoNet - January 20, 2004

Banja Luka, 20 January: Young men from Bosnia-Hercegovina are being recruited to join the so-called white Al-Qa'idah and if the radical Islamic movement is not stopped young men from this area will fight for the goals of the Islamic fundamentalists and continue to suffer as victims of wrong policy, Slobodan Radulj, former member of the Anti-terrorist Team of Bosnia-Hercegovina and adviser to the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia-Hercegovina, has said.

"Reports by international intelligence services saying that future terrorists will be blue-eyed and blonde indicate that Al-Qa'idah is recruiting in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Kosovo. This is why the authorities should prevent radical Islamists from paying young and poor men to go to battlefields and to die there," Radulj told (Banja Luka-based daily) Nezavisne novine.

He said that 400 aid NGOs were operating in Bosnia-Hercegovina and that many of them were engaged in money-laundering and financing terrorist activities.

"These are allegedly aid organizations and no concrete steps have been taken by institutions of the Federation of Bosnia-Hercegovina to shed light on their activities. We did receive reports suggesting that the accounts of certain aid organizations had been blocked but these cases would usually end up swept under the carpet," Radulj added.

According to Radulj, the work of the State Team for Fighting Terrorism has been blocked since the Party for Democratic Action (SDA, main Bosnian Muslim party) came to power.

Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 0921 gmt 20 Jan 04

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.