Title: Message
| Serbia Army Intelligence Chief: Al-Qaida Active In
Kosovo |
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| Copyright
© 2004, Dow Jones Newswires |
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BELGRADE (AP)--The head of Serbia-Montenegro's
military intelligence claimed in comments published Sunday that Osama bin
Laden's al-Qaida and other terrorist groups are present in the Balkans and
planning to increase their activity there.
In an interview with
the official Tanjug news agency, Colonel Momir Stojanovic also claimed
that the ultimate aim of al-Qaida and other extremist Islamic groups is to
carve out an independent Muslim state in the Balkans.
"We have
information that al-Qaida has strongholds in Kosovo, northern Albania ...
and that they are active in western Macedonia," Stojanovic, the head of
the Military Security Agency of Serbia-Montenegro's army, said. All areas
are heavily populated by ethnic Albanians, who are mostly Muslims.
"The strategic aim of the Muslim extremists in the area is to
create an Islamic state in the Balkans," which would include
Muslim-dominated areas in the region, Stojanovic added.
There was
no immediate comment on Stojanovic's claims from U.N.-run Kosovo or
Albania, but the Macedonian Defense Ministry said it had no evidence of
any al-Qaida on its territory.
Claims that Islamic terrorists are
present in the Balkans have surfaced before.
Serbian officials
have repeatedly said that ethnic Albanian nationalists have established
close ties with radical Islamic groups and that extremist fighters fought
Serb troops during the Kosovo war in 1998-99.
In neighboring
Bosnia, rumors have also surfaced of al-Qaida activity, but the
international peacekeepers stationed there since the end of the country's
1992-1995 war have never found any such evidence.
During the
Bosnian war, Serb leaders claimed they were fighting to keep Muslims from
establishing an Islamic regime in the former Yugoslavia. Bosnian Muslim
leaders dismissed those claims as absurd, arguing that their people are
secular and European.
Stojanovic also predicted that terrorist
activity in the Balkans, including Serbia-Montenegro, would increase in
the "upcoming period."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 01, 2004 09:39 ET (14:39
GMT)
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