Report says Bosnian, foreign intelligence exchange information on terrorism
BBC Monitoring - July 28, 2004

Text of report by M. Cubro: "OSA lends assistance to CIA", published by Bosnian Serb newspaper Nezavisne novine on 28 July

Sarajevo: "Potential Islamic terrorists in Bosnia-Hercegovina are wanted by intelligence agencies of the United States, Great Britain, France, as well as several other countries, and they are assisted in that by agents of the Bosnia-Hercegovina Intelligence-Security Agency (OSA)," says a source of Nezavisne novine from the State Intelligence Service. "I am not sure that there are 100 CIA agents looking for Islamic terrorists in Bosnia-Hercegovina, as the foreign press claims, but we can be sure that British, US, and French intelligence officers are active in our country, gathering information about Islamic terrorism and links with Al-Qa'idah. The British intelligence community is the largest one in Bosnia-Hercegovina. I am positive there are twice as many British as US intelligence officers," our source goes on to say.

He claims that OSA officers regularly exchange information with their foreign counterparts about the activities of persons that could be connected to Islamic terrorism. "The present OSA mostly works on the basis of what the FOSS (Bosnia-Hercegovina Federation Intelligence-Security Service) has managed to collect before. They have a list of about 750 persons. They exchange intelligence with foreign agents about the movement and financing of persons who could be linked with terrorism," our source points out.

Barisa Colak, security minister of Bosnia-Hercegovina, says he has no information about the presence of a large number of foreign intelligence agents in Bosnia-Hercegovina. "The Security Ministry does not have information to that effect, but the OSA law regulates the manner of cooperation with foreign intelligence services. Of course, it is possible that those intelligence officers are active in Bosnia-Hercegovina but that they came to our countries as businessmen, for example," Colak says. Security Minister Colak does not deny the allegation that the local security bodies get some of their information about terrorist activities from their foreign counterparts. "We have an antiterrorist team in which representatives of foreign embassies are also active. We exchange information, as was the case with the ban on the work of certain humanitarian organizations," Colak explains.

OSA Director Almir Dzuvo was away all day yesterday and could not return our calls. According to the British media, several hundred persons in Bosnia-Hercegovina - who took refuge in our country after taking part in the fighting in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Iraq - can be linked with Islamic terrorism. Earlier this year, Nezavisne novine reported, on the basis of testimony of intelligence officers and parents of volunteers killed in the war in Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq, that Bosnia-Hercegovina is one of the recruitment centres for Al-Qa'idah members.

SOURCE: Nezavisne novine, Banja Luka, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 28 Jul 04 p 2

Copyright 2004 British Broadcasting Corporation  
BBC Monitoring Europe - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring

Posted for Fair Use only.