Bosnian mujahideen

Bosnian mujahideen were predominantly foreign Muslim volunteers who fought on the side of the Bosnian government during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. The number of volunteers is estimated to have been between 3,000 and 7,000 with the majority coming from countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Algeria and Saudi Arabia. In addition, local Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) fought alongside the foreign mujahideen. Initially, the mujahideen units operated independently of the Bosnian government army (ARBiH). However, as the war progressed they became increasingly integrated into the regular Bosnian army and its command structure. In addition to the Mujahideen volunteers, there were also several hundred Iranian Revolutionary Guards supporting the Bosnian government during the war. Many of the Bosnian Mujahideen were supported financially from Saudi Arabia, including persons and organizations later connected with Al-Qaeda

Role during the Bosnian War 1992-1995

Foreign mujahideen arrived in central Bosnia in the second half of 1992 with the aim of helping their Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) coreligionists against the Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat forces. Mostly they came from North Africa, the Near East and the Middle East. On 13 August 1993, the Bosnian government officially mobilized the Kateebat al-Mujahideen ("Battalion of the Holy Warriors") or El Mudžahid, on the personal orders of Bosnian president Alija Izetbegović, to whom the unit was directly responsible. Initially, the foreign Mujahideen gave food and other basic necessities to the local Muslim population, deprived many necessities by the Bosnian Serb forces. Once hostilities broke out between the Bosnian government (ABiH) and the Bosnian Croat forces (HVO), the Mujahideen also participated in battles against the HVO alongside ABiH units.

The foreign mujahideen actively recruited young local men, offering them military training, uniforms and weapons. As a result, local Bosniaks joined the foreign mujahideen and in the process became local "Bosnian Mujahideen". They imitated the foreigners in both the way they dressed and behaved, to such an extent that it was sometimes, according to the ICTY documentation in subsequent war crimes trials, "difficult to distinguish between the two groups. For that reason, the ICTY has used the term "Mujahideen" (which they spell Mujahedin) to designate foreigners from Arab countries, but also local Muslims (ie Bosniaks) who joined the Mujahideen units.

The first Bosnian mujahideen training camp was located in Poljanice next to the village of Mehurici, in the Bila valley, in Travnik municipality. The mujahideen group established there included mujahideen from Arab countries as well as Bosniaks. Amongst the local Bosniaks were former members of the Muslim Forces of Travnik and soldiers who were de jure members of 3rd Corps units, namely of the 7th and 306th Brigades. The Mujahideen from Poljanice camp were also established in the towns of Zenica and Travnik and, from the second half of 1993 onwards, in the village of Orasac, also located in the Bila valley.

According to the ICTYs indictment of Rasim Delic, Commander of Main Staff of the Bosnian army (ABiH), after the formation of the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade of the ABiH 3rd Corps on 19 November 1992 the El Mujahid were subordinated within its structure. The Bosnian Mujahideen were involved in combat activities of units of the ABiH 3rd Corps, including the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade, and frequently spearheaded ABiH 3rd Corps combat operations. On 13 August 1993 Rasim Delic then ordered the establishment within the ABiH 3rd Corps area of responsibility of the "EL Mujahed" unit, effective no later than 31 August 1993. The El Mujahed unit remained part of the ABiH 3rd Corps until its disbandment on 12 December 1995.

The military effectiveness of the Bosnian mujahideen is disputed. However, former US Balkans peace negotiator Richard Holbrooke said in an interview that "I think the Muslims wouldn't have survived without this" help. At the time a U.N. arms embargo diminished the Bosnian government's fighting capabilities. Holbrooke called the arrival of the moujahedeen "a pact with the devil" from which Bosnia still is recovering.

Bosnian mujahideen units

At the end of the war there were a number of Bosnian mujahideen units in the Bosnian government army:

• 3rd Corps (the "el Mudzahidin"): this was the main Bosnian mujahideen unit with its main headquarters in Zenica, central Bosnia. The 3rd Mujahedin Corps was composed of three Brigades, each of about 1,500 troops. These brigades were: the 7th Muslim Liberation Brigade in Zenica, the 9th Muslim Liberation Brigade in Travnik (now operating under the Tuzla-based 2nd Corps), the 4th Muslim Liberation Brigade initially deployed in the front lines in the "bulge" (Botsilo region) and then in Konjic and the 807th Muslim Liberation Brigade, was established on 20 December, 1995. The 807th Muslim Liberation Brigade is an integral component of the Gorazde-based 81st Division.

• Volunteer Mujahedin Battalion (the "al Ansar"): this was a separate force in the Zenica-Travnik area. The Ansar was 300 to 600 troops strong. The main headquarters was in the Vatrostalno Factory building in Podbrijezje (near Zenica). In addition, there was a camp called the "Martyrs' Detachment", which, since the Spring of 1995, had absorbed a few hundred new volunteers arriving from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

• Battalions of Believers (the "Kata 'eb al-Manikin"): this force included mainly Arabs. They were serving under the command of military officers from Pakistan and Afghanistan. The trainers and leadership were from Iran. Each Battalion was 300 to 600 troops strong. The first operational battalion was based in the Buzim area (north west Bosnia). Another battalion served as a special forces unit for the 2nd Corps in the Tuzla area.

• Handzar Division: named after the 13th Waffen-SS Handschar Division which served under the German flag in World War II. The contemporary Handzar Division was a 2,500 to 3,000 elite force deployed in Sarajevo and a 6,000 to 7,500 strong back-up force at a major training base around Fojnica, but is moved around to augment major fighting fronts. The majority of the troops of the Handzar Division come from the region's non-Bosnian Muslim minorities, primarily Albanians, and were led by veteran Pakistani and Afghan experts.

Relationship to the Bosnian government army (ABiH)

The extent to which the Bosnian mujahideen were controlled by the Bosnian government is contentious. According to a UN communiqué of 1995, the El Mujahid battalion was "directly dependent on BiH staff for supplies" and for "directions" during combat with the Bosnian Serbs. The issue has formed part of two ICTY war crimes trials. In its judgement in the case of ICTY v. Enver Hadzihasanovic (commander of the 3rd Corps of the army of the Sarajevo-based government (ABiH), he was later made part of the joint command of the ABiH and was the Chief of the Supreme Command Staff) and Amir Kubura (commander of the 7th Muslim Brigade of the 3rd Corps of the ABiH) the ICTY found that

"there are significant indicia of a subordinate relationship between the Mujahedin and the Accused prior to 13 August 1993. Testimony heard by the Trial Chamber and, in the main, documents tendered into evidence demonstrate that the ABiH maintained a close relationship with the foreign Mujahedin as soon as these arrived in central Bosnia in 1992. Joint combat operations are one illustration of that. In Karaula and Visoko in 1992, at Mount Zmajevac around mid-April 1993 and in the Bila valley in June 1993, the Mujahedin fought alongside AbiH units against Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat forces."

After the official formation of the El Mujahid battalion on 13 August 1993 it became part of the Bosnian Army, though with its own commanders. According to testimony and evidence presented at the ICTY trial of Bosnian government General Rasim Delic, which began in July 2007, the Bosnian Mujahideen operated under the control of the Bosnian army (ABiH) though with their own commanders.

War crimes

The judgements of Enver Hadzihasanovic and Amir Kabura concerned a number of war crimes involving the Bosnian mujahideen. Those included in the judgement are recounted below:

• on 26 January 1993, following an attack on the village of Miletici in Travnik Municipality, four Bosnian Croat men were captured, had their hands tied behind their backs and subsequently had their throats slit and their blood collected in a pan.
• on 8 June 1993, 23 Croatian men and one young woman were executed in Bikoci while they were being held prisoner. The Trial Chamber finds that the perpetrators of the massacre were foreign and local Mujahedin.
• from 26 January 1993 to 20 August 1993 and on 20 September 1993 civilian prisoner were held at the Music School in the town of Zenica, were victims of cruel treatment and physical and psychological abuse. During that period more than one hundred detainees were imprisoned at the Music School. 10 detainees described the violence they were subjected to. One witness told how during the night, detainees were taken out one by one from their cells upstairs at the Music School and that, with the lights out, they had to go through a line of soldiers who beat them with wooden shovel handles. The same witness stated that one day a military policeman ordered a father to beat his mentally handicapped son. When the father refused to do so, another detainee was forced to carry out the order.
• on 18 May 1993, 16 Bosnian Croat and Bosnian Serbs civilians were taken to the Motel Sretno where they were beaten several times until the next morning, 19 May 1993, when they were set free. In the first phase of the interrogation, they were kicked with boots and beaten with rifle butts and fists. In the second phase, the detainees were forced to hit each other. In the third phase, they were forced to go through a row of soldiers who beat them with rifle butts. A witness told how he did not get up and how he lost consciousness after being beaten a dozen times by a truncheon on the head. In the fourth and last phase, the detainees were made to place their heads between the bars of their cells and were then beaten by pieces of wood. Evidence has indicated that after such brutalities some of the victims suffered several broken ribs, dislocated kidneys, and damaged spinal columns.
• In late July or early August 1993, several detainees, including Mario Zrno, a prisoner of war, were taken outside the Bugojno Convent and subjected to severe beatings. Mario Zrno did not survive.
• On the night of 5 August 1993, five or six prisoners, including Mladen Havranek, a prisoner of war, were severely beaten on the upper floor of the Slavonija Furniture Salon. Several witnesses stated that from the cell in the basement they heard Mladen Havranek screaming and begging for the beatings to cease. After repeated beatings, Mladen Havranek was unable to walk and was dragged down the stairs to the cell in the basement. Malden Havranek died as a result of his injuries that same night.
• On 21 October 1993, Dragan Popovic, a Bosnian Serb civilian, was executed by members of the Bosnian Mujahideen detachment. In its judgement the ICTY notes that this murder was "particularly heinous". Dragan Popovic was taken with three other prisoners to a meadow where a pit had been dug. About 50 to 100 soldiers from the El Mujahed detachment stood around the pit shouting. Dragan Popovic was pushed to the edge of the pit and fell on his side after being tripped. One soldier then tried unsuccessfully to behead him with a hatchet, so another soldier had to finish the execution. The other prisoners were then forced to kiss the head of the deceased while the soldiers shouted in ritual celebration.
• the Monastery of Guča Gora and the Church of St. John the Baptist in Travnik were damaged in June 1993 by Bosnian Mujahideen. In the Monastery of Guča Gora - which was both a sacred and historical site for the Croatian Catholic community - steles and the organ were destroyed, and the frescoes and walls were partially covered with inscriptions in Arabic. Similar destruction and damage was recorded at the church in Travnik: paintings, organs and windows were destroyed or vandalised and the statues of saints were decapitated.

The ICTY indictment of Rasim Delic, the Bosnian mujahideen were involved in numerous war crimes during the summer of 1995. These are listed below:

• 21 July 1995: the El Mujahed unit decapitated the captured Bosnian Serb soldiers Momir Mitrovic and Predrag Knezevic.
• 24 July 1995: while held at the Kamenica prison camp, the Bosnian Serb soldier Gojko Vujicic was behaded and the other prisoners were forced to kiss the severed head after which the head was placed on a hook on the wall in the room in which the prisoners were held.
• the Bosnian Serb prisoners held at the Kamenica Camp, run by the El Mujahed, were beaten and tortured, including with electrical shocks.
• 60 Bosnian Serb males captured by the El Mujahed and held at the Kamenica Camp are missing and presumed to have been killed by the El Mujahed.
• an elderly Bosnian Serb man, held in the Kamenica Camp was beaten and forced to drink water mixed with petrol. He later died in the camp as a result of the mistreatment.
• three civilian female prisoners held at the Kamenica camp were beaten, kicked, hit with metal sticks and rifle butts, and subject to sexual assaults, including rape.

After the war

The foreign mujahideen units were supposed to be disbanded and required to leave the Balkans under the terms of the 1995 Dayton peace accord. But many stayed - about 400, according to official Bosnian government estimates. Although the US State Department report suggested that the number could be higher, a senior SFOR official said allied military intelligence estimated that no more than 200 foreign-born militants actually live in Bosnia, of which closer to 30 represent a hard-core group with direct links to terrorism.

A sizeable number were granted citizenship by Izetbegovic in exchange for their fighting in the Bosnian civil war. In September, 50 of these individuals had their citizenship status revoked. Since then 100 more individuals have been prevented from claiming citizenship rights. 250 more were under investigation, while the body which is charged to reconsider the citizenship status of these former mujahideen states that 1,500 cases will eventually be examined.

Links to Al Qaeda and Islamic terrorism

Following the end of the Bosnian War and, especially, after the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Center, the links between the Bosnian Mujahideen, Al Qaeda and the radicalization of some European Muslims has become more widely discussed. In an interview with US journalist Jim Lehrer former US peace envoy to Bosnia Richard Holbrooke states:

There were over 1,000 people in the country who belonged to what we then called Mujahideen freedom fighters. We now know that that was al-Qaida. I'd never heard the word before, but we knew who they were. And if you look at the 9/11 hijackers, several of those hijackers were trained or fought in Bosnia. We cleaned them out, and they had to move much further east into Afghanistan. So if it hadn't been for Dayton, we would have been fighting the terrorists deep in the ravines and caves of Central Bosnia in the heart of Europe.

In 1996, in a book titled "Offensive In the Balkans", Dr. Yossef Bodansky, Director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the US House of Representatives from 1988 to 2004, wrote as follows on the "Bosnian Jehad":

"...The build-up of new Islamist units was completed in Bosnia- Herzegovina in the Spring of 1995. These forces are closely associated with the Armed Islamist Movement (AIM) and Islamist international terrorismsuicide terrorists), both veteran Arabs and newly trained Bosnians.

London's The Spectator has noted, "If Western intervention in Afghanistan created the mujahedin, Western intervention in Bosnia appears to have globalised it." Several current and former top al-Qaeda militants and financiers reportedly participated in the Bosnian civil war with the full support of the United States. It was for the Bosnian jihad that the 9/11 'paymaster', Omar Sheikh, was reportedly recruited to fight by the CIA and MI6. Al-Qada, in addition to his reported financing of the Bosnian jihad, has been identified as one of Osama bin Laden's "chief money launderers". In his paper on the connection between Bosnian mujahideen and 'home grown' terrorists in Europe, terrorism expert Evan F. Kohlmann writes that:

Indeed, some of the most important factors behind the contemporary radicalization of European Muslim youth can be found in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where the cream of the Arab mujahideen from Afghanistan tested their battle skills in the post-Soviet era and mobilized a new generation of pan-Islamic revolutionaries.

Further reading

• The Afghan-Bosnian Mujahideen Network in Europe, by, Evan F. Kohlmann. The paper was presented at a conference held by the Swedish National Defence College's Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies (CATS) in Stockholm in May 2006 at the request of Dr. Magnus Ranstorp - former director of the St. Andrews University Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence - and now Chief Scientist at CATS). It is also the title of a book by the same author.

See also

• Bosnian War
• Mujahideen
• Alija Izetbegovic
• Revolutionary Guards
• Jihad
• 7th Muslim Brigade
• Al Qaeda

External links

• The Economist, Balkan extremists, 12 July 2007
• Gulf Daily News, Bahraini key witness in Hague atrocity trial, 7 September 2007
• Reuters, Muslim fighter begins testimony in Bosnia trial, 7 September 2007
• The American Conservative, The Bosnian Connection, The civil war that inspired both liberal hawks and Islamist jihadis, by Brendan O’Neill
• Youtube video of Bosnian General Rasim Delic delivering his farewell speech to the El Mujaheed
• SENSE Agency, Survivor from Kamenica Camp testifies at Rasim Delic trial, 3 October 2007
• Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), CTY: BiH Army Knew About Mujahedin Crimes, 8 September 2007
• Trial, profile of Rasim Delic, former Chief of Staff of the Army of Bosnian Muslims responsible for the Bosnian Mujahideen
• ICTY indictment against Rasim Delic
• Extended Bosnia Mission Endangers U.S. Troops, Republican Policy Committee, by Chairman Larry E. Craig, 16 January 1997
• Al-Qaeda in Bosnia: Bosnian Muslim War Crimes Trial, by Carl Savich for Serbianna (Serbian organization based in the United States), 4 December 2007
• Foreign volunteers in Army B&H by Michal Warczakowski at vojska.net