Bosnian commentary criticizes internationals for failing to curb radical Islamism
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - December 15, 2005 Thursday

Text of commentary by Dragan Risojevic entitled "From denial to admission" published by the Bosnian Serb newspaper Nezavisne novine on 12 December

"Yes, of course, it is clear that you have people here linked with terrorism," it has been confirmed with great difficulty by Louis Weber, the commander of the NATO headquarters in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

"Terrorist activities do exist here. It is the impression of the international community that, when a terrorist attack happens and we start looking back, the trail very frequently also goes through Bosnia-Hercegovina in some way," Weber said.

One gets an impression that the general has not been following press reports over the past few years, and the fact that he has only recently arrived here is not much of an alibi. Over the years the media have been full of information about ongoing terrorist activities. However, it was only after the recent arrests of terrorism suspects in Sarajevo that international officials have begun talking about it in publi...il now they have just been shaking their heads warily and claiming this was planted by someone (try and guess who!). They also called it media exaggeration, but such allegations should not be ignored. The latest arrests, however, have shown that terrorism is here, although any normal person finds it difficult to understand that there are religious extremists able to cause grief to many with just a few weapons and explosives.

It is extremely difficult to efficiently control radical ideas, and the impression one gets is that, over the past few years, not much has been done by way of preemptive efforts to curb the spreading of radical ideas. The international community, through its tactics, has contributed to a certain degree to this unfavourable situation. The impression that arises is that, regardless of the extent to which they have been troubled by this problem in their home countries, they have semi-consciously been neglecting this problem in Bosnia-Hercegovina. It may be asserted that they have been doing this for political reasons. It is clear that they understand that raising the issue of terrorism could be linked with our sensitive religious and ethnic problems, but this again is not much of an alibi.

It is a fact that, throughout the years, they have been silent witnesses to the spreading of radical Islamism. It has been shown that the mere closing down of various humanitarian organizations from the Arab world has not helped solve the problem. The latest arrests clearly have shown that the terrorist infrastructure in Bosnia-Hercegovina is in a very good shape and is a latent threat that, the same as elsewhere in the world, is difficult to fight. How do you stop a 19-year-old from running a web site for al-Zarqawi, one of the Al-Qa'idah leaders, and making bombs for terrorist attacks as a pastime? This is the reason why prevention is most important. The mosques are the right place where we, with an adequate media campaign, should start building a dam to stop the spreading of these ideas and the birth of crazy ideas in the minds of some of the dangerous new kids on the block. The biggest responsibility for this is borne by the local authorities and the Islamic religious leadership, which must recognize the problem in no uncertain terms. It is worrying that we have stopped dealing with the imported problem because of, as we often have been led to believe, the inflation of the mujahidin in one part of Bosnia-Hercegovina. [sentence as published] It is a fact that we now are faced with the problem of computer-literate young men with B-H origins! This is why it is perhaps time to start believing the allegation of "white Al-Qa'idah", considering that the latest arrests clearly have shown that nothing is impossible anymore.

Source: Nezavisne novine, Banja Luka, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 12 Dec 05

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