http://www.energypu <http://www.energypublisher.com/article.asp?id=13467> blisher.com/article.asp?id=13467 Bosnia begins deportations Under duress, Bosnia deports the first of 600 naturalized citizens from Islamic countries.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008 by ISA Under intensifying pressure from the international community, Bosnian authorities on 16 December deported the first of nearly 600 naturalized Bosnian citizens from Islamic countries. Since early 2006, the some 600 citizenships have been revoked; however, authorities have been slow to act on international orders to have those in question deported to their home countries. Bosnian Deputy Security Minister Dragan Mektic said authorities on 16 December deported 37-year-old Algerian Atau Mimun to his native country. Mektic told western media outlets that Mimun's citizenship had been revoked after evidence that the Algerian had contacts with some figures linked to terrorism. He offered no further details. "Information gathered by law enforcement agencies led us to conclude that Atau Mimun was a danger to our national security and also inclined to crime," Mektic told AFP. Mimun gained Bosnian citizenship in 1994 after marrying a Bosnian woman from the central town of Tesanj - an area where most of foreign fighters who arrived in Bosnia to fight against Bosnian Serb forces relocated after the 1992-1995 war. Mimun arrived in Bosnia in 1992 from Pakistan, accompanied by another Algerian citizen, Abdulkadir Brahmi. According to Bosnian media reports, both served as trainers for mujahideen fighters in camps located in the Pak-Afghan border area. According to information from the Bosnian government, after his citizenship was revoked earlier this year, Mimun disappeared for some time, but was eventually located in a home in Tesanj where a local man - said to be a member of the radical Wahhabi movement - had provided him with shelter from the authorities. Mektic said that several months ago Mimun had attempted to use legal measures to extend his stay in Bosnia, including seeking asylum or a temporary reprieve to remain with his family in the country. These means were unsuccessful, however. Though government officials said Mimun had no prior convictions, local media claimed he was involved in racketeering in central Bosnian and the capital, Sarajevo. Since the September 2001 attacks on the US, Washington has stepped up pressure on Bosnian authorities to revoke the citizenships of and expel up to 1,500 of Muslim men who arrived during the war from the Middle East and North Africa to fight against Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats. Indeed, Bosnian authorities did investigate and close down a dozen Islamic aid agencies, arresting several people suspected of links to extremist groups. In February 2006, the government formed the citizenship revision commission, and to date has revoked some 600 citizenships, recommending deportation. Their citizenships have been revoked on the grounds of giving false personal information, such as dates and places of birth, in their citizenship applications. For some of them it was proved that they had connections with Islamic militant groups that are still active, though ostensibly not in Bosnia. Since 2001, dozens of Bosnian passport bearers believed to have close ties with Islamic militant groups were arrested elsewhere in the world, particularly in the Middle East and South Asia. Indeed, Bosnian authorities do not know the whereabouts of the majority of the 600 slated for deportation. All naturalized Bosnian citizens were given until mid-2006 to provide all the documents they used to gain Bosnian citizenship, but only a few dozen showed up. As such, the authorities only have the addresses listed on the citizenship applications, which are up to 10 years old. Out of an estimated 6,000 Arab volunteers who arrived during the early stages of the war, the Bosnian Foreign Ministry estimates that around 1,000 remained in the country as naturalized Bosnians. Many received new passports under new often Bosnian names, making their previous records difficult to trace. Revision commission officials told ISA Consulting that they were facing difficulties, since most of the cases lack the proper documentation - cases in which citizenships were granted in Bosnian embassies throughout the world. In some instances, the proper stamps and signatures are lacking. According to the commission, those whose citizenships were striped hailed from a variety of locations in the Middle East and North Africa, but largely from Saudi Arabia, Syria and Algeria. Out of the 1,300 cases so far revised, at least 100 were Algerian natives. A police source close to the anti-terror investigations told ISA Consulting that most of the Algerian fighters came to Bosnia in mid-1992 through the Algeria based Armed Islamic Group (GIA), via Croatian capital Zagreb - though the Bosnian Security Ministry has no evidence that Mimun himself was member of the group. The source also said that some Algerian nationals arrived in Bosnia through the Egyptian militant group Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya. The source said GIA had sent some high-ranking officials to Zagreb, where they set up a charity front called Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK) or Al-Kifah - a center used for the logistical operations of infiltrating Bosnia. Western media quoted several unnamed intelligence officials as saying that MAK was founded in the mid-1980s by Osama bin Laden to raise funds for recruiting foreign fighters for the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Al-Kifah also had branches in Pakistan and New York, and offices in 32 US cities. The New York branch was shut down right after the 1993 WTC bombing after an investigation proved that all of the bombers were connected to that office. Later on, at least six members of the Al-Kifah Zagreb office, including its head, Kamar Eddine Kherbane, were arrested throughout the world on various charges, including weapons smuggling, plotting terror attacks and membership in militant groups, including GIA, Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya and al-Qaida. Algerians were also the first initial target of the US-led war on terror in Bosnia. In October 2001, after a US intelligence tip-off, Bosnian security forces arrested six native Algerians. Six were suspected of being members of the GIA and al-Qaida cells that had plotted to bomb US and British embassies in Sarajevo. Those allegations, however, were later dropped. Three months after the arrest, the six men, all post-war charity workers, were released by the Bosnian Supreme Court, but under US pressure were extradited to Guantanamo Bay, where they are languishing. US authorities have not officially charged them. Five of the six men were naturalized Bosnian citizens, while the sixth was a permanent resident of Bosnia. Though the international community was initially pleased with the work of Bosnia's revision commission, whose mandate expires in February, it later became frustrated, particularly the US, with Bosnian authorities' failure to accomplish the next step - deportations. In July, the international community's high representative to Bosnia, Slovak diplomat Miroslav Lajcak, stepped up the pressure on local authorities, particularly Security Minister Tarik Sadovic, from the Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA), to move ahead with the deportations. Sadovic had stalled over alleged technical difficulties, arguing that he was not authorized to sign the deportation orders and had attempted to place the onus of the move on his assistant. However, after Lajcak threatened to impose sanctions against Sadovic, the security minister ordered that the deportation processed be expedited, and soon afterwards preparations were underway, with the Bosnian government announcing the pending deportation of the first group of 48 people originating from 11 African and Middle Eastern countries. It appears now, though, that the long-awaited deportations may in fact start and end with Mimun. Deputy Mektic said no one else would be deported for the time being, citing the complicated legal procedure. After citizenship is revoked there are several levels of legal resources those who are targeted may seek. However, Bosnia's parliament is discussing a new anti-terrorist law to simplify the process. Shortly after announcing the deportations, the Bosnian government was criticized by human rights groups, who pointed out that many of those whose citizenships have been revoked could face torture or the death penalty in their home countries. Tunisian-born Karray Kamel bin Ali, alias Abu Hamza, is one such man who has exhausted most legal measures to avoid deportation. Abu Hamza is believed to have been the informal leader of the Wahhabi movement in Bosnia, and a revision commission source told ISA that he was slated to be among the first group of those deported. The Tunisian's citizenship was revoked in April, and authorities have labeled him a potential national security threat with links to figures with "terrorist aspirations." Abu Hamza gained Bosnian citizenship during the 1992-1995 war due to the fact that he fought with and was commander of the El-Mujahid unit and married a Bosnian woman. According to police information, Abu Hamza was part of a 15-20 member group of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya members that arrived in the central Bosnian cities of Zenica and Travnik in the summer of 1992. Living in Bosnia until 1998, he used several names and falsified Yemeni and Libyan documents to gain citizenship. However, Abu Hamza has managed to postpone his deportation to Tunisia (where he was sentenced in absentia to 13 years in prison) after being arrested only a week before the deportation date for his involvement in a bizarre shooting incident in a village near Zenica. Abu Hamza and three associates, all members of the Wahhabi movement, were arrested in June after an attack on a house owned by Zijad Kovac in which three members of Kovac's family were wounded. On 30 November, Abu Hamza was sentenced on two years and 10 moths in prison for the assault. Rather than deporting him, however, Bosnian authorities released him the same day as his sentencing, citing overcrowded local prisons. Local media reported that security forces have remained on alert since and during the trial, in which Abu Hamza threatened the media, police and "all enemies of the Islam." On 21 December, a court in Zenica ordered that Abu Hamza be incarcerated following the filing of a complaint last week by his wife, who claimed he had assaulted her. The prosecutor in the case, Sasa Sarajlic, also presented the court with threatening letters he received from Abu Hamza, according to local media reports. ISA is a nonprofit, independent consultancy that specializes in providing analysis of developing issues in international relations to NGOs [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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