Islamic terror in Bosnia - follow-up and some background
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On September I wrote here an article “Radical islamist network spreading in Balkans” (look from my BlogArchive) describing some actual events in Bosnia-Herzegivina.
Now a Croatian NGO Libertas made public statement in which it says that Croatians in Bosnia are victims of Bosnian Muslim terror and are asking Bosnian Croat political leadership to initiate a plan that will break up the Bosnian Federation entity and form a Croatian one.
Serbianna news headline on 11th Oct.2008 is quite informative - “Islamic terror victimizing Bosnian Croats”. The statement of Libertas claims that "After several denary terror attacks on Croatian returnees in central Bosnia, after several murders of children of which the last was in Sarajevo and after the latest murder of Croats in FIS Vitez and relentless attacks on Croatian property in Bosnia, why hasn't anyone been held accountable,".
Some background
The Former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia James Bissett told in his article “War on terrorism skipped the KLA” (look it from here or my Document library ) that Bin Laden and radical Muslim groups had been deeply involved in the Balkans since the civil wars in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995. It was reported that Muslim authorities had issued a Bosnian passport to Osama bin Laden at the Bosnian embassy in Vienna in 1993.
Shaul Shay, an officer in the military Late intelligence of the Israeli Defense Forces and expert on international and fundamentalist Islamic terrorism, analyzes in his book "Islamic Terror and the Balkans" the growth of radical Islam in the Balkans. He shows how the war in Bosnia and the war in Kosovo provided the historical opportunity for radical Islam to penetrate the Balkans.
“After 9/11, when the US started examining the financing of terror organizations, it discovered that many of the Islamic charities that operated during and after the war in the Balkans were channeling “terror” money . A big chunk of that money that was supposed to be used for humanitarian purposes went to finance those (islamic terror) infrastructures, ” Shay stated.
For background information I could also recommend book "Unholy Terror: Bosnia, Al-Qa’ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad” by John R. Schindler.
Lessons learned
Western mainstream media (MSM) and reports of international organizations and NGOs have told many stories about capacity building of new multi-ethnic state with European perspective. The events now and earlier are forcing to ask if the picture created by MSM is the right one. I do not have that kind of illusion. Few remarks for future:
Are recent events describing wider ethnic intolerance in Bosnia-Herzegovina and maybe Kosovo too where Islamic terror has some potential? Can this situation give new perspective to one-sided (Serbs bad, others good ones) picture of Balkan wars? Has international community right priorities while making capacity building and police operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina? Has the artificial creature Bosnia-Herzegovina came to end of its road as federation? Do possible three entities have any reason to hang together in same state or are more alluring prospects other side of the borders?More in my Balkan Blog
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Islamic terror