http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/03/AR2007090300996_2.html
Washingtonpost.com
In Bosnia, Former Fighters Face Expulsion
Many Foreign-Born Muslims Who Came During 1992-95 War Now Losing
Citizenship
By Jonathan Finer
<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/jonathan+finer/>
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, September 4, 2007; Page A14
ZENICA, Bosnia -- They met in 1985 as Syrian immigrants in Croatia
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Croatia?tid=informline>,
two students in their 20s grappling with a language and a culture they
didn't understand.
Seven years later, when word spread of a nearby war being waged by
fellow Muslims, Ayman Awad and Imad Al Husayn boarded a bus for Bosnia
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Bosnia+and+Herzegovina?tid=informline>
and joined the fight, they recounted. After peace came in 1995, they
married local women, became Bosnian citizens and started families. They
settled in ravaged rural villages and fostered a strict religious code
that contrasted sharply with the more relaxed Islam endemic to this
country's native Muslims.
Now, Awad, 42, and Husayn (who goes by the nickname Abu Hamza), 43, may
again be on the move, this time not by choice. Earlier this year, the
Bosnian government revoked the two men's citizenship as part of a broad
review of foreign-born residents that was urged by the United States. It
has led to the denationalization of at least 500 people, about 70
percent of whom arrived here from throughout the Muslim world during the
three-year ethnic civil war.
Awad and Husayn have been given 60 days to appeal the decisions against
them. If unsuccessful, they and a few dozen others who remain in the
country and are embroiled in similar proceedings could be deported.
Bosnian and international officials say the presence of the former
fighters -- who, like predecessors in the war against the Soviet army in
Afghanistan
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/afghanistan.html?nav=el>,
are known as mujaheddin, Arabic for "strugglers" -- is illegal. The
officials say some of them maintain links to terrorist groups, creating
a security threat for Bosnia.
The men and their advocates deny such links and say they are victims of
a heavy-handed approach to those of their faith in the wake of the Sept.
11, 2001 attacks. By forcing them to leave, they contend, Bosnia is
exposing them to persecution in their countries of origin.
"I didn't come to get their passport, I came because I heard stories of
villages being burned and people being killed and raped. When we fought
here, they called us brothers," said Ayman, who has a bushy silver
beard, over coffee and ice cream in the timber industry town of Zenica,
where he now lives.
"If we have done one thing wrong, I demand that they bring proof," he
said. "As you see, we have been here 15 years and the streets are not
running with blood. The buildings are still standing."
Once hailed here as war heroes -- several received the Golden Lilly
Award, the country's highest military decoration -- the men who fought
as the Mujaheddin Brigade now have few legal options. The 1995 Dayton
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Dayton?tid=informline>
peace agreement, which ended the Bosnian war after close to 250,000
deaths, required the withdrawal of all combatants "not of local origin."
But anywhere from 50 to a few hundred of the fighters remained, despite
repeated calls for their expulsion from the United States and
international bodies, which during the war largely supported the Muslim
cause.
Foreign security agencies have long warned that Bosnia, which has
struggled to stamp out lawlessness in the postwar period, is fertile
ground for terrorist groups seeking a foothold in Europe
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Europe?tid=informline>
and trying to recruit so-called white Muslims, non-Arabs who can more
easily evade security profiling.
Those concerns intensified after Sept. 11. In January 2002, six Bosnian
men of Algerian origin alleged to be plotting an attack on the U.S.
Embassy were seized by U.S. peacekeeping forces in Sarajevo
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Sarajevo?tid=informline>
and flown to the U.S. military
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+Armed+Forces?tid=informline>
detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/cuba.html?nav=el>.
They were later cleared by a Bosnian court, and the Bosnian government
has requested their release, but they remain in U.S. custody.
Earlier last month, Raffi Gregorian, an American who is deputy high
representative in Sarajevo for foreign parties to the Dayton agreement,
suggested to a Sarajevo newspaper that some of the foreign veterans had
links to al-Qaeda
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Al+Qaeda?tid=informline>.
"I wouldn't say that all of the foreign fighters are a threat, but some
of them certainly are," he said in a recent interview. "And beyond that
they were supposed to leave 12 years ago. Their presence is a violation
of Dayton, and if we overlook that, what else do we have to overlook?"
Gregorian also said that a lack of a public outcry among Bosnia's Muslim
majority reflects beliefs that the Mujaheddin Brigade committed
atrocities during the war. The fighters deny the claims of atrocities.
"They came here and committed war crimes," said Gregorian. "Then they
asked Bosnian Muslims to comport themselves in a certain way, making
women dress in a certain way, that was very disruptive," he said. "These
people are alien. They look alien. They talk alien. They act alien. This
is a parochial society that has its own approach to Islam, and they
don't fit in."
A top Muslim political leader here denounced the claim of al-Qaeda links
as "very unpleasant, incorrect and malicious."
In late 2005, the Bosnian government established a commission to revoke
citizenships improperly granted during and immediately following the
war, when some foreigners were rewarded for their service with passports
or obtained them through marriage.
The nine-member body, comprised of six Bosnians -- two each from the
country's Muslim, Serb and Croat ethnic groups -- and three foreigners,
has reviewed about 1,300 cases, according to its chairman, Vjekoslav
Vukovic. About 70 percent of the 500 people who have been denationalized
are Arab or South Asian Muslims, he said.
Attorneys for the men and human rights advocates in Sarajevo, the
capital, attribute Bosnia's recent zeal on this issue to pressure from
abroad and from Bosnian Serbs who govern the Republica Srpska, one of
two political units established by the peace accord.
Srpska officials have been circulating a 17-page document entitled
"Chronological Review of the Islamicization and Radicalization in Bosnia
and Herzegovina." It includes graphic, color photographs, alleged to be
from the war, showing what appear to be Muslim fighters holding severed
heads. The men's attorneys say their clients pose no risk and that if
deported, they are likely to face severe human rights violations. "These
men are good Bosnians and have been here for 15 years, and now because
of foreign pressure that is forgotten," said Kadrija Kolic, a lawyer in
Sarajevo who said he has represented about 30 people who have been
stripped of their citizenship. "Some of their countries have laws
against fighting in another army. So, there is a real risk that bad
things will happen if they are forced out. Indeed, this has already
happened."
Vukovic rejected claims of any political influence, foreign or domestic,
on what he called a "legal, not a political process."
"We get calls from foreign embassies and organizations, but I can tell
you for sure, I am responsible for the work here, and we make our own
decisions," he said.
The commission often requests a report from Bosnian intelligence about
whether those under consideration pose any national security risk. Less
than 10 of those denationalized were classified as such, he said. All
decisions about denationalization must be unanimous.
Those who have lost their citizenship argue that they are given no
opportunity to rebut the evidence presented against them. "They just
send you a notification, and it can be a few sentences long, with no
explanation," said Raffaq Jilalli, 43, a Moroccan native who was wounded
in the war.
In January, the commission revoked his Bosnian citizenship, and he is
now awaiting the results of his appeal. "The government used us, and
when they got power, they didn't need us anymore," he said.
So far, no one denationalized has been forcibly deported. All but a few
dozen have left on their own, Bosnian and international officials said.
Ayman and Husayn said they plan to seek asylum in a country other than
their native Syria
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Syria?tid=informline>,
where they fear they would be mistreated by authorities. As a last
resort, the men said, they could take their case to an international
human rights court.
Both denied that they or any foreign fighters in Bosnia have a link to
terrorism. But they warned that by separating them from their families,
Bosnian authorities are creating a threat of extremism that otherwise
would not exist.
"We are raising our kids to love people, not to hate people, but by
doing this, the government is pushing them, and others, toward hate,"
said Husayn, who has six children. "If we are kicked out, they will be
in the streets with no fathers. Who should be blamed if they do
something wrong? Who can blame them if they will be angry? The
government will regret this, and they will pay."
