BOSNIAN PROSECUTOR PROBES REPORTS OF AL-QA'IDAH SETTING UP RECRUITMENT CENTRE
BBC Monitoring - July 30, 2004

"Prosecutor probes whether B-H is Al-Qa'idah recruitment centre", published by Bosnian Serb newspaper Nezavisne novine on 29 July

Sarajevo: A source close to the B-H Prosecutor's Office has told Nezavisne novine that the B-H Prosecutor's Office has, for a couple of months now, been trying to find out whether Al-Qa'idah is recruiting young men in this country to use them for their terrorist activities.

"State Prosecutor Marinko Jurcevic has called for an investigation following media reports published early this year about young men being dispatched from B-H to fight in Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq. The investigation has been going on for a couple of months and focuses on discovering channels through which young people are being sent to these countries and whether it is being done through certain organizations or global terrorist networks' cells in B-H," the source said.

The entity police forces and other law-enforcement bodies are involved in the investigation. Foreign intelligence agencies are also on the track of Islamic terrorists in B-H and are closely cooperating with local intelligence services.

"Information on potential terrorist activities in B-H has been exchanged for years. However, the investigation is based on a list of 750 people, who came to B-H under the pretext of defending the country. Instead, they were trained for terrorist activities," the source said.

A couple of years ago, the B-H Federation Intelligence and Security Service (FOSS) identified 750 people who could be linked to terrorism. After the list was completed, these people were supposed to be placed under close surveillance in order to establish their origin, how they had obtained B-H citizenship, their funding sources, and potential links with terrorist organizations. According to a US newspaper, Khalid Shaykh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the terrorist attack against the World Trade Centre in New York, had been in B-H during the war.

"Mohammed was probably on the FOSS list, but under some other name. Even if he was in B-H, he was certainly not very active or he would have been noticed and reported," said a former FOSS officer, who had participated in identifying people suspected of links with terrorists. The British media claim that there are several hundred people in B-H who could be linked to Islamic terrorism and that, after fighting in Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq, they have found sanctuary in B-H.

According to one British newspaper, terrorists in B-H can easily obtain the arms, funds and identification documents necessary for their activities. Based on testimonies from intelligence officers and the parents of volunteers who lost their lives in Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq, Nezavisne novine published a report early this year that B-H is one of the centres for the recruitment of Al-Qa'idah members.

Source: Nezavisne novine, Banja Luka, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 29 Jul 04 p 3

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