Serb daily questions presence of Hamas people in Bosnia
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - January 23, 2009 Friday

Text of report by Bosnian Serb state-owned daily Glas Srpske, on 21 January

[Commentary by Goran Maunaga: "Hamas and B-H"]

Members of the Hamas terrorist organization, or rather the Islamic Resistance Movement which was set up in the Gaza strip in 1987, took part in the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina as part of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina. A large number of them stayed behind after the war and are still in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

Several of them took part in anti-Israeli protests in Sarajevo the other day where they were seen chanting "Allahu Akbar [God is great]."

The Serb Republic [RS] does not approve of such protests and it was a good move on the part of RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik to publicly and officially convey this in a message to Israeli President Shimon Peres.

The basic and what any sensible man would consider as the most important difference between the ideologies and conduct of Israel and Hamas is that Israel is striving for peaceful coexistence with the Palestinians while Hamas's goal is the destruction of Israel to the last Jew. And if the Palestinians themselves could not restrain the fascist Hamas which had for months been firing rockets at Israeli settlements, then without doubt Israel had no choice but to do it itself.

This is how the 22-day long "Israeli attack on the innocent people of Palestine" is viewed from where I stand.

Still, let us see what should be done with the Hamas members who have settled in Bosnia-Hercegovina, mainly in Sarajevo, and obviously feel at home here. What should be done with those Hamas members who were stripped of Bosnia-Hercegovina citizenship but have not yet been deported because the authorities do not know where they are hiding? There are also Hamas members who are here legally, but the question is what are they doing in this country? And another question: What to do with those Hamas members who had committed war crimes in Bosnia-Hercegovina?

All these questions should be answered by Zlatko Lagumdzija who, in order to atone for his role in the extradition of the Algerian Six to the Americans, has been more vociferous than even Haris Silajdzic in defending "our Palestinian brothers," in other words Hamas, despite the fact that the majority of Palestinians disown them.

Since, in a desperate attempt to regain votes, Lagumdzija lumped together in the same basket "those who set up Auschwitz and those who attacked Sarajevo and Gaza," we believe that he owed us an answer to the following question: Who in fact are Hamas and should they really be allowed to achieve their publicly proclaimed goal of destroying Israel to the last Jew?

Source: Glas Srpske, Banja Luka, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 21 Jan 09
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