BOSNIAN AL-QA'IDAH MEMBERS PLAN ATTACKS ON NATO - TERRORISM EXPERT
SRNA - October 17, 2003

New York - A group of Islamists, 10 mujahidin trained in Afghanistan, have entered Bosnia-Hercegovina with the help of Sandzak connections and are currently in Al-Qa'idah camps near Zenica (central Bosnia) and Tuzla (northeastern Bosnia), a Serb terrorism expert, Darko Trifunovic, has told SRNA. He added that a plan to blow up a tunnel through which a column of American vehicles was meant to pass was prevented in the last moment.

Trifunovic is currently in Washington, where he is talking with American anti-terrorism experts and prominent members of the Congress about the spreading and aims of Islamic fundamentalism in the Balkans and especially in Bosnia-Hercegovina where - as Trifunovic said - they operate "with the blessing of top Muslim officials".

He said that a group of about 300 young Kosovo Albanians, who had been attacked by the concept of a Greater Muslim state, was trained in northern Albania and then transferred to Kosovo with their trainers, mujahidin fighters from Middle Eastern and North African countries. According to intelligence reports, a third of the group went to the border with Macedonia tasked with destabilizing that country. Another third went towards Serbia, where some have already been caught, while some headed for Sandzak (Raska (old Serbian name for the region)) and on the way there killed Serb children in Gorazdevac (Kosovo).

Trifunovic said that the third group ended up in Bosnia-Hercegovina, where it is being trained to launch attacks on tunnels and communication lines used by Sfor (NATO-led Stabilization Force) and Americans, as well as Soko Airport near Tuzla.

"We have information that the group was welcomed by well-known terrorist Abu-Hamza in Bocinja, where the largest camp of Islamic extremists is located," Trifunovic said and warned that the situation was very dangerous.

He stressed that Serb and foreign terrorism experts were especially concerned about the presence of the most extreme Islamists in Bosnia-Hercegovina. He revealed that "a special Wahhabi unit has been set up in Brcko District". Trifunovic had brought with him to the USA a list with the names of the members of this unit with the intention of handing it over to members of the Congress.

Trifunovic warned that Vakufska and Ilamska banks were operating in Bosnia-Hercegovina although they were suspected of financing Muslim fundamentalists.

"The owner of Vakufska Bank is Yasin Al-Kadi, who is being investigated in the States," Trifunovic explained.

"If Bosnia-Hercegovina High Representative Paddy Ashdown claims that this is not the case, let him get in touch with me so that we can give him information about the Al-Qa'idah network in the Balkans," he added.

Trifunovic informed his American collocutors about suspiciously large correspondence between young Balkan Islamists from the LIVO network and their foreign fellow believers about the 2004 Olympic Games in.

"This is very disturbing and leads us to believe that the main threat to the security at the Olympic Games will come from the Balkans," Trifunovic stressed and added that it was very easy to enter Greece illegally from southern Albania and Western Europe through Bosnia-Hercegovina and Croatia.

"International terrorism experts regard the Balkans as a gateway for terrorists to the West," he recalled.

Trifunovic refused to answer a question by SRNA about where he got the information that Muslim terrorists would attack not just Americans and non-Muslims at the Olympics in Greece but also sportsmen from Islamic countries, whom the Islamists "curse for taking part in an event organized by a western country and which is not in accordance with their believes".

According to Trifunovic "American colleagues know the situation in the Balkans well and believe that the existence of the (Bosnian) Serb Republic and its intelligence service is necessary in order to keep a track on Muslim spies".

"Some foreign experts believe that Croats in Bosnia-Hercegovina are under the greatest threat in this situation and that for the sake of regional security it would be good if a Croat entity existed," Trifunovic said when conveying his impressions from the meetings in the USA.

Text of interview conducted by Milorad Boskovic, published by Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA
Source: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 0915 gmt 17 Oct 03

Copyright 2003 Financial Times Information
All rights reserved
Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire 
Copyright 2003 BBC Monitoring/BBC  
BBC Monitoring International Reports

Posted for Fair Use only.