NEWS!!
Today there were two thing to be read in the Dutch news about BiH:
1) The head of SIPA, the Bosnian equivalent of the FBI, states that Bosnia is becoming a harbor and training facility for terrorists; and
2) The former head of the police of Bosanski Samac, a place in the northe east of BiH, mr. Stefan Todorovic, has committed suicide. His nickname during the war was Monstrum. I do not think this needs translation.
Ad 1). This is something I have heard before. Currently there is a trial going on in our Court against a few guys from Bosnian descent but with Scandinavian passports, who are accused of preparing terrorist attacks, apparently against embassies. It is still not clear whether those attacks should have taken place in BiH or somewhere else in Europe. However, the head of SIPA does not think the terror will take place in BiH- BiH is practice ground, and apparently, according to this expert, terrorists don't shit were they eat. Ok, fair enough. Whether that is a comforting though? I dunno....
The SIPA head claims that the presence of terror cells in BiH is a result of the fact that during the war a great number of jihadists came to BiH to fight. Since there was a weapons embargo against this country during the war, BiH was happy with any support they could get- beggars can't be choosers. Although no-one was really fond of the fundamentalist, they did come with much needed fighting experience. According to the Dayton agreements of 1995 they were supposed to leave the country after the signing of the peace. However, by marrying local women, quite a number of the men mananaged to stay here. They are still very recognisable, and their wives even more- let's say they dres distinctive. Although their role in the country is quite marginal, their effect on the public opinion in the Republika Srpska is not. And neither is their role in harboring terrorism, according to the head of SIPA. I can not claim it is true what he says, but his words are interesting for sure. Especially since their claimed training ground is where I went parasailing last year. And I did not see a thing. Which might speak for their abilities to work in disguise....
Ad 2). Yesterday I was going through the public files of the crimes committed in Bosanski Samac in 1992, and I was reading about the actions of Mr. Todorovic (www.un.org/icty).
It is fair to say that BiH in the early '90-ies was not a place to go, and Bosanski Samac was not a place to be (actually, nowhere in BiH around then was a place to be or to go. A lot of Bosnians agreed. One in two people became a refugee, albeit in their own country, albeit as a refugee in -predominantly- Europe). It is strange though, that the eye of the world was mainly on Sarajevo and not on all the other places, too. People who were not in Sarajevo during the siege, but who were in other places, tell me often with unease that they were envious of the attention for Sarajevo. Some of them think that the it drew away the attention for them, and that therefore their towns could turn out into 'killing fields'. Bosnaski Samac was such a place, where the world did not pay attention to. While it should have. Reading the files, I get naucheous, like so may times. Mr. Todorovic sum suis reigned with terror. Hisdeath comes as a surprise to me, like to so many other people (he did commit suicide), but if I would not have read the files yesterday, I probbably wouldn't have even noticed his death. And suddenly I understand the envy of the people from anonymous towns in BiH. Only people with a specific interest in BiH look at their case, still now, while their cases usually consists of crimes against humanity, too. And aren't crimes against humanity crimes against all of us, also concerning the people who are not paying attention to them? So why didn't we care....? Again, like so many times here, food for thoughts.....
.....but not for now! Now I am in the airport of Budapest, on my way to Greece, where I am going sailing with 15 friends. I am flying from Sarajevo to Budapest, from Budapest to Athens, and from Athens to Kos. My lay-over time is much longer than my actual flying time, which is quite a pain. All together I am travelling for 16 hours- I could have flown to Hong Kong in the same time....
Anyway, I managed to talk myself 'in an upgrade', so I am sitting in the business lounge now, and am trying to feel sorry for myself for having to wait for my delayed plane. I am not really succeeding at it- the holiday feeling, the drinks, the fingerfood and internet facilities make up for all in the inconveniences....
1) The head of SIPA, the Bosnian equivalent of the FBI, states that Bosnia is becoming a harbor and training facility for terrorists; and
2) The former head of the police of Bosanski Samac, a place in the northe east of BiH, mr. Stefan Todorovic, has committed suicide. His nickname during the war was Monstrum. I do not think this needs translation.
Ad 1). This is something I have heard before. Currently there is a trial going on in our Court against a few guys from Bosnian descent but with Scandinavian passports, who are accused of preparing terrorist attacks, apparently against embassies. It is still not clear whether those attacks should have taken place in BiH or somewhere else in Europe. However, the head of SIPA does not think the terror will take place in BiH- BiH is practice ground, and apparently, according to this expert, terrorists don't shit were they eat. Ok, fair enough. Whether that is a comforting though? I dunno....
The SIPA head claims that the presence of terror cells in BiH is a result of the fact that during the war a great number of jihadists came to BiH to fight. Since there was a weapons embargo against this country during the war, BiH was happy with any support they could get- beggars can't be choosers. Although no-one was really fond of the fundamentalist, they did come with much needed fighting experience. According to the Dayton agreements of 1995 they were supposed to leave the country after the signing of the peace. However, by marrying local women, quite a number of the men mananaged to stay here. They are still very recognisable, and their wives even more- let's say they dres distinctive. Although their role in the country is quite marginal, their effect on the public opinion in the Republika Srpska is not. And neither is their role in harboring terrorism, according to the head of SIPA. I can not claim it is true what he says, but his words are interesting for sure. Especially since their claimed training ground is where I went parasailing last year. And I did not see a thing. Which might speak for their abilities to work in disguise....
Ad 2). Yesterday I was going through the public files of the crimes committed in Bosanski Samac in 1992, and I was reading about the actions of Mr. Todorovic (www.un.org/icty).
It is fair to say that BiH in the early '90-ies was not a place to go, and Bosanski Samac was not a place to be (actually, nowhere in BiH around then was a place to be or to go. A lot of Bosnians agreed. One in two people became a refugee, albeit in their own country, albeit as a refugee in -predominantly- Europe). It is strange though, that the eye of the world was mainly on Sarajevo and not on all the other places, too. People who were not in Sarajevo during the siege, but who were in other places, tell me often with unease that they were envious of the attention for Sarajevo. Some of them think that the it drew away the attention for them, and that therefore their towns could turn out into 'killing fields'. Bosnaski Samac was such a place, where the world did not pay attention to. While it should have. Reading the files, I get naucheous, like so may times. Mr. Todorovic sum suis reigned with terror. Hisdeath comes as a surprise to me, like to so many other people (he did commit suicide), but if I would not have read the files yesterday, I probbably wouldn't have even noticed his death. And suddenly I understand the envy of the people from anonymous towns in BiH. Only people with a specific interest in BiH look at their case, still now, while their cases usually consists of crimes against humanity, too. And aren't crimes against humanity crimes against all of us, also concerning the people who are not paying attention to them? So why didn't we care....? Again, like so many times here, food for thoughts.....
.....but not for now! Now I am in the airport of Budapest, on my way to Greece, where I am going sailing with 15 friends. I am flying from Sarajevo to Budapest, from Budapest to Athens, and from Athens to Kos. My lay-over time is much longer than my actual flying time, which is quite a pain. All together I am travelling for 16 hours- I could have flown to Hong Kong in the same time....
Anyway, I managed to talk myself 'in an upgrade', so I am sitting in the business lounge now, and am trying to feel sorry for myself for having to wait for my delayed plane. I am not really succeeding at it- the holiday feeling, the drinks, the fingerfood and internet facilities make up for all in the inconveniences....
posted by David Hein at 9:05 PM
1 Comments:
The mujaheddin didn't just manage to stay by marrying local women. In '93 most of them were given Bosnian citizzenship in order to integrate them in the Bosnian Army. Check out the files from OTP vs. Hadzihasanovic et al. if you're interested.
Bosanski Samac was really nasty. In fact, it's still not a very nice place. Admittedly I've only been there once, in a snowstorm, in the middle of the night, but knowing where I was (crossing from Croatia into Bosnia by bus) it was certainly a spooky place to have my passport checked.
So the terrorists are training around Zenica huh? Wouldn't surprise me. Bush has admitted the existence of the CIA black sites detention programme [link=http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1866809,00.html]here[/link] and [link=http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1866484,00.html]here[/link]
and it certainly wouldn't surprise me if some of that was going on in BiH too.
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