MORE VIDEO EVIDENCE OF MUJAHIDIN WAR CRIMES SHOWN ON BOSNIAN SERB TV
BBC Monitoring International Reports - September 18, 2007, Tuesday

Excerpt from report in English by Belgrade-based Radio B92 text website on 17 September

Bijeljina/The Hague, 17 September: A Bosnian TV station has broadcast parts of a new tape showing the activities of a Mujahidin unit during the Bosnian war. The tape shows some of the crimes committed by the unit against Bosnian Serbs during the 1992-1995 war in central Bosnia.

The footage shows Mujahidin "sharpening axes" which they later allegedly used to behead a Serb soldier; a speech is also recorded of a Mujahidin saying: "They call us terrorists. We are terrorists and we will destroy all the enemies of Allah." In addition to the hair-raising scenes of corpses and mutilation, there are also pictures of living prisoners of war that the Mujahidin had tied up and abused - the scenes were broadcast on Bijeljina's BN TV. There is also footage of the Mujahidin playing football using, instead of a ball, "a decapitated head."

The Al-Mujahidin was a unit consisting of fighters from Islamic countries, who, as they say on the tape, came to Bosnia to "fight for Allah", with the alleged approval of the then Bosnian war council, under whose command they fell, as part of the Muslim Bosnian Army. The unit was formed in 1993, and according to the clips, that same year, an order was read out saying that they formed part of the Bosnian Army, and had the approval of the then Muslim leadership.

The footage also shows the arrival at the Mujahidin camp of then-Bosnia-Hercegovina President Alija Izetbegovic. The tape shows the camp from the inside, their training, life, religious practices and preparation for war in the "name of Allah". Mujahidin war cries can be heard, while there is also footage of the reading of an order that from 13 August 1993, that they are recognized "by the Bosnian state and are part of the armed forces of the then-Muslim state of Bosnia-Hercegovina," and that they are there in "the name of Allah".

The tape was found by the Council of Concentration Camp Victims of the [Bosnian] Serb Republic, whose president, Branislav Dukic, has said that the footage came from the Bosniak side. Dukic said that even among the Bosniaks, there were "those who wish to prove the presence of Mujahidin in Bosnia, and the war crimes they committed on the territory of central Bosnia." Women were among those seen living in the Mujahidin camp, dressed strictly according to Islamic dictates, as well as children, dressed in military wear, while one little girl is shown holding a pistol.

The unit, as is claimed at the end of the video, numbered some 1,000 fighters by the end of the war, including some 700 Bosniaks, who were recruited during the course of the war, and 300 foreign warriors from Islamic countries. [Passage omitted: more on previously covered details]

Parts of the video material - called "Jihad in Bosnia" - that was broadcast by BN TV, will, according to reports, be shown on the Serb Republic Radio Television [RTRS] news programme this evening. [Passage omitted: more on proceedings before the Hague tribunal]

Source: Radio B92 text website, Belgrade, in English 1553 gmt 17 Sep 07
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