-Caveat Lector-
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From: International Justice Watch Discussion List
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On Behalf Of Andras Riedlmayer
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2002 6:57 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Hand-Over of Terrorism Suspects to U.S. Angers Many in Bosnia
(cross-posting of comments only permitted)
The lame excuse prize goes to Bosnian government officials, who defied
a legally binding order from the Human Rights Chamber by handing over
a group of Arab suspects to the United States.
On Jan. 17, the chamber faxed the government what was, in effect,
a restraining order against deporting four of the men. For various
legal reasons, it did not make such a ruling on the other two.
The same day, the U.S. Embassy requested custody of the men.
Despite the chamber's order, the men were transferred to U.S. troops
just before dawn Jan. 18. A small, angry cluster of demonstrators
tried unsuccessfully to block the prisoners' exit from jail.
An official at the Human Rights Chamber, speaking on condition
of anonymity, said: "Our decision was not merely a recommendation.
It was binding. Irreparable harm has been done." Later, the
government said the chamber's order contained clerical errors
that made it invalid.
American pressure -- of a kind that Germany, Britain, Spain, France,
Italy and Belgium are in a position to resist but Bosnia cannot -- had
nothing to do with it, according to the government, which claims its
actions were perfectly legal. Others in a position to know term it
a dangerous subversion of the rule of law.
"It's dreadful," said Madeleine Rees, who heads the Sarajevo
office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
"Protection of human rights is way down on the list of
priorities. Credibility has been shot to pieces."
"The Americans wanted the Algerians and got them," said
Vlado Adamovic, a judge on the Supreme Court of Bosnia's
Muslim-Croat federation. "As a citizen, all I can say is
it was an extra-legal procedure."
Many Bosnians also, quite rightly, want to know why major war criminals
such as Radovan Karadzic, wanted for acts of terror against civilians,
are allowed to remain at large in Bosnia. Why aren't American forces
in Bosnia, which have the capability, still unwilling to take action
to apprehend known terrorists, against whom an international criminal
tribunal has issued unquestionably legal arrest warrants?
Andras Riedlmayer
==========================
The Washington Post
January 31, 2002
Hand-Over of Terrorism Suspects to U.S. Angers Many in Bosnia
Daniel Williams, Washington Post Foreign Service
SARAJEVO, Bosnia -- The cover of a popular Bosnian magazine last week
depicted Uncle Sam urinating on the country's constitution and the
European Human Rights convention.
And nearly two weeks after their government handed over six
Arab terrorism suspects to U.S. authorities, many Bosnian Muslims are
still angry. At the request of the U.S. Embassy here, the government
defied two court orders and turned over the men, five Algerians and
a Yemeni, who were reportedly then shuttled to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
to join scores of detainees rounded up in Afghanistan.
The Bosnian government defends its action as legal. But human rights
officials and Bosnian Muslims dismiss that claim and say that in its
enthusiasm to wage the war on terrorism, the United States has undermined
its own long efforts to build respect for the rule of law in the Balkan
country, scene of a devastating ethnic war in 1992-95. "It's dreadful,"
said Madeleine Rees, who heads the Sarajevo office of the U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights. "Protection of human rights is way down
on the list of priorities. Credibility has been shot to pieces."
"The Americans wanted the Algerians and got them," said Vlado Adamovic,
a judge on the Supreme Court of Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation. "As a
citizen, all I can say is it was an extra-legal procedure."
Human rights groups that once supported the United States, and in some
cases were funded by it, are heatedly complaining. As government officials
try to justify the action, Bosnians are left to ponder the meaning of
their turn on the stage of the U.S. war against terrorism. Although
terrorism suspects have been arrested recently in Germany, Britain, Spain,
France, Italy and Belgium, none of those countries has turned them over
to the United States.
During the three-year war here, the United States sided with the
Bosnian Muslims, the country's biggest group. Nonetheless, many of them
wonder today why the United States has not moved as aggressively against
people accused of war crimes against Bosnian Muslims, notably Bosnian Serb
leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, who have been indicted by a
U.N. war crimes tribunal but remain at large.
"This shows that all this justice talk is just politics," said
Izudin Lagumdzija, a television repairman.
A peace agreement that the United States brokered in 1995 contained
intricate supports for the rule of law. Many of the country's legal
institutions were designed to ensure the rights of Muslim, Croat and Serb
ethnic groups during the slow, delicate process of piecing the country
back together. Civil courts were meant to substitute for civil war.
During the war, Bosnia was a magnet for foreign Muslims wanting to
defend their faith in battle against Serbs and Croats. Hundreds fought
on the side of the government. After 1995, they were granted citizenship
as a form of thanks. Many of them remained in the country and married
Bosnian women.
Today, some of these veterans work to promote strict adherence to
Islamic law, in opposition to Bosnia's generally relaxed traditions.
Western governments have long worried that they form the core of
extremist cells ready to commit acts of terror in and outside Bosnia.
Some Bosnian officials say the expulsion of Islamic activists is
overdue. "We are stained by their presence here," said Rasim Kadic, a
member of the government's anti-terrorism group, formed after Sept. 11.
"Bosnians can't travel to Western Europe without a visa because of them."
Kadic acknowledged that Bosnia, where U.S. peacekeepers are present,
felt pressure from the U.S. Embassy to turn over the suspects.
U.S. Ambassador Clifford Bond recently said that the hand-over
reflected U.S.-Bosnian cooperation. "We deeply appreciate their efforts
both to protect our safety and to promote security in your country,"
he told local reporters.
The case began in October, when the Arabs were arrested on suspicion of
planning terrorist acts against U.S. citizens and installations in Bosnia.
Five of them held Bosnian citizenship, but in November the government
stripped that status from them. In effect, Bosnian law no longer
applied to them, the government said, and they could be turned over
to a foreign government.
Bosnian investigators say U.S. intelligence officials fingered
the Algerian group, as the six are known here, as a "sleeper cell"
within Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. The cell is said to have
been activated on bin Laden's orders after Sept. 11.
The key suspect seems to be Bensayah Belkacem, who arrived in Bosnia
in 1995. Investigators say he made several telephone calls last autumn
to a top al Qaeda official in Afghanistan who goes by the name of
Abu Zubaida. While in custody, Belkacem told interrogators he had made
no plans to attack the U.S. Embassy.
According to court documents, Belkacem was an associate of another
Algerian, Saber Lahmar, who had resided in Bosnia since 1996 but never
obtained Bosnian citizenship. He worked for the High Saudi Committee,
an organization that builds mosques in Bosnia, teaches Arabic and
trains youths in computer science.
Bosnian officials say Lahmar was an important link in the plot to
attack the embassy. His father-in-law, Mesud Susic, was a repairman
at the embassy and had keys to the building and diplomatic apartments.
Lahmar married the repairman's daughter in February and moved into
Susic's home in Sarajevo.
When Lahmar was arrested, FBI and embassy security officials began
a series of interrogations with Susic. After taking two polygraph tests,
Susic refused a third. He was eventually fired from his embassy job
for having failed to disclose who was living at his home. But he has
not been charged with any crime.
During an interview, Susic wore a U.S. Embassy sweat shirt emblazoned
with a bald eagle. He said Lahmar never inquired about the embassy's
workings or asked for keys. Susic said he did not get along with his
son-in-law because Lahmar's pious ways conflicted with Susic's lifestyle,
which included smoking and occasionally drinking alcohol.
"If Saber is guilty, I would sacrifice my own parents to bring out
the truth," Susic said. "The Americans were afraid because I had keys.
I was nervous because of the questioning. I felt I was being treated
as a murderer."
During the investigation, Bosnian police searched the home of
Susic's pregnant daughter, Emina, and questioned her about her husband's
acquaintances. She visited him in jail on Jan. 17, the day he expected
to be released. "The Americans said they came to Bosnia to help, but
now I don't think so," she said.
The four other men involved are Mustafa Ait Idir, Hadz Boudela,
Boumedienne Lakhdar and Mohammed Nechle. They all worked for Arab or
Islamic aid agencies in Sarajevo. All held Bosnian citizenship and each
denied involvement in a terrorist plot.
The Muslim-Croat federation's supreme court took up the group's case.
After a three-month investigation, the court ordered the men released,
citing lack of evidence. Bosnian officials said the United States declined
to provide transcripts or other information about the alleged telephone
calls, the key evidence that purportedly linked the six to al Qaeda.
Soon rumors began to circulate that the United States would seize the
detainees. On Jan. 14, a lawyer for the men, Fahrija Karkin, petitioned
Bosnia's Human Rights Chamber to block any deportation. "I understood
the desire of the United States to question, try and perhaps punish
the Algerians. My position was they should be tried here in Bosnia,"
Karkin said.
On Jan. 17, the chamber faxed the government what was, in effect,
a restraining order against deporting four of the men. For various
legal reasons, it did not make such a ruling on the other two.
The same day, the U.S. Embassy requested custody of the men.
Despite the chamber's order, the men were transferred to U.S. troops
just before dawn Jan. 18. A small, angry cluster of demonstrators
tried unsuccessfully to block the prisoners' exit from jail.
An official at the Human Rights Chamber, speaking on condition
of anonymity, said: "Our decision was not merely a recommendation.
It was binding. Irreparable harm has been done." Later, the government
said the chamber's order contained clerical errors that made it invalid.
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