FORMER MUJAHIDIN FIGHTER TESTIFIES AGAINST BOSNIAN MUSLIM WARTIME COMMANDER
BBC Monitoring International Reports - September 9, 2007 Sunday

Text of report by Bosnian Independent TV Hayat on 7 September

[Presenter] The trial of the former commander of the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina, Rasim Delic, is temporarily taking place in Sarajevo. The reason is, as reported, the impossibility of a prosecution witness to go to the Netherlands. The witness is currently an inmate of the Zenica prison, where he is serving a sentence for terrorism. During the war, he was a member of a mujahidin unit.

[Reporter] The prosecution witness was Ali Ahmad Ali Hamed, who had participated in combat and had been injured. According to him, the front man of the mujahidin in Bosnia-Hercegovina was Abdul Aziz, a close associate of Usamah Bin-Ladin.

[Ali Ahmad Ali Hamed, prosecution witness, at hearing in Sarajevo] I had information already in Bahrain that Abdul Aziz would be coming to Bosnia. When the war started I learnt that the man came and brought around 10 million US dollars in order to organize mujahidin forces that were supposed to be a part of the system of the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina. This is what, in fact, later happened.

[Reporter] According to the witness, immediately upon arrival of mujahidin to our country, contact was established with the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina.

[Ali Hamed] Abdul Aziz confirmed to me that he had contacted the military and political leadership in Sarajevo, and told me he had talked with Alija Izetbegovic [late Muslim president of Bosnia-Hercegovina] and some top officers in Sarajevo. He told me they supported him fully and that they agreed with him where he and his unit would be located.

[Reporter] Ali Ahmad Ali Hamed arrived to Bosnia-Hercegovina in September 1992. The first destination was Travnik. This is where a Brigadier Asim met him.

[Ali Hamed] When I arrived to the command of Muslim forces in Travnik, Brigadier Asim told me that mujahidin would be in his unit and that he was the person receiving the first group of foreign mujahidin. He told me that foreign mujahidin were based in two locations.

[Reporter] Soon after this, Ali Ahmad Ali Hamed received a uniform and weapons and went to the battlefield. Mujahidin units and units of the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina carried out synchronized attacks on enemy positions, the witness said.

[Ali Hamed] It is the most important to say that we, foreign mujahidin, did not carry out a single attack without cooperation with troops of the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina.

[Reporter] During 1993, Ali Ahmad Ali Hamed became the commander of a unit with 107 soldiers - 70 Arabs, 25 Turks and 12 Bosniaks [Bosnian Muslims]. During that time, he often met, as he says, with General Mehmed Alagic, with whom he decided on activities.

The trial chamber will sit for the next two days.

Source: Independent TV Hayat, Sarajevo, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 1700 gmt 7 Sep 07

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