Bosnian Wahhabi says offered money to destroy Catholic monument in Mostar
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) -  July 20, 2006, Thursday

Excerpt from report by Robert Soldo entitled "Wahhabi's confession: I was offered 9,000 dollars to blow up cross at Hum" published by Bosnian edition of Croatian newspaper Vecernji list on 19 July - subheadings as published

Mostar: "As far back as two years ago, I was offered 9,000 dollars to blow up the cross at Hum, the hill above Mostar," says Elviz Alicic, 33, also known as Abu Jafir. Alicic is a member of the Wahhabi (mujahidin) movement in B-H [Bosnia-Hercegovina]. He was born in Buzim and currently resides in Blagaj, Mostar municipality. He turned the offer down, as well as the money he was offered to blow up the US consulate.

There is someone sitting there

We conversed outside his modest home in the presence of his wife and two underage children, under alleged threat of sniper fire. On the night before last, shortly before 2000 hours, he reported to the police that someone had tried to kill him by opening fire from a nearby hill and firing two shots at him. The bullets flew past his head. Yesterday he even tried to convince us that there was somebody sitting on a hill, but we could not see anything. He said he had always had excellent sight and that, throughout the war, he served as a sniper in the Al-Mujahidin unit.

"My neighbours heard everything. They want to kill or intimidate me, because I am not a terrorist, just a believer. I cannot understand how they missed; perhaps something was wrong with the optical sight, the barrel, or something else. Then I heard them singing: "We are the army of Allah, we fight for Islam, we are not afraid of losing our lives!" Then they sang an ilahiya [religious song] and an old sevdalinka [traditional Bosnian love song]," Alicic said, glancing up the hill. When asked why members of the FMUP [Federation Interior Ministry] arrested him early last Wednesday [12 July] morning, he just shrugged his shoulders and said:

Shaykh Husayn's offer

"I received a similar offer after the recent attack against the imam of the Balinovac mosque. The cross should have been blown up as revenge, just like two years ago, when Shaykh Imad-Tada was arrested in Jablanica and extradited to Egypt. The man who offered me money is known by the nickname Shaykh Husayn. I threw him out of my home. Back then, I had a job in Vogosca television marketing and had an identity card that could open many doors for me. That was probably why some were trying to draw me into that. Nevertheless, my brothers, the mujahidin, and I kept getting together. Currently, there are approximately 500 mujahidin in B-H.

"It is no secret that we get together in mosques and socialize, just like other small religious communities. There was absolutely no need to send a whole unit of police officers wearing bulletproof vests and carrying long barrels, who tied me up and beat me, asking where I hid the arms and explosives. Despite everything, I was deeply hurt when I saw one of them throwing the Koran on the floor during the raid. I told everything to the state prosecutor, who released me after three days' detention in Sarajevo," Alicic said.

Source: Vecernji list (Bosnia-Hercegovina edition), Zagreb, in Croatian 19 Jul 06 p 7

Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation
Posted for Fair Use only.