Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Church Desecration Video Serves as Jihad Fund-Raiser
CNSNews via gopusa.com ^ | August 11, 2005 | Sherrie Gossett

Posted on 08/11/2005 10:00:36 AM PDT by FormerLib

(CNSNews.com) -- A violent video showing the desecration of a church and the murder of a Serbian soldier is one of many "jihad" videos currently making the rounds in Western countries to raise funds for Muslim terrorists, according to counter-terrorism experts interviewed by Cybercast News Service.

The graphic footage, stamped Sept. 16, 1995, was videotaped approximately two months before the Dayton Peace Accords, which brought an end to the civil war in Bosnia.

Darko Trifunovic, deputy director of the Center for Security and Investigation of Terrorism at the Belgrade Institute for Political Studies, provided Cybercast News Service with a copy of the video during his recent visit to Washington, D.C. Cybercast News Service has edited the video to remove portions dealing with the killing of the Serbian soldier and other grisly images of copses.

Trifunovic, an attorney, previously served as first secretary in the Bosnia-Herzegovina Mission to the United Nations in New York City and conducted war crimes research for The Hague's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. In the latter capacity, Trifunovic interrogated mujahedeen who were involved in the fighting in Bosnia.

"The video was shot in western Bosnia," said Trifunovic. "It has been shown in Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden and North America for fund-raising purposes."

Evan F. Kohlmann, a Washington D.C.-based terrorism consultant and author, confirmed that videos of Bosnian battles and church desecrations were currently being circulated as inspiration and as a fund-raising tool for jihad-minded terrorists. Kohlmann has previously testified before Congress on terrorism issues.

The video opens with mujahedeen interrogating a Serbian soldier. The soldier was recognized by a relative as 32-year old Rade Rogic, said Trifunovic.

According to a translator consulted by Cybercast News Service, the lead captor asks Rogic, "Do you know who we are?"

"You're the mujahedeen," Rogic replies on the video.

"That's right, we're the mujahadeen." When questioned about his duties, Rogic insists he serves in the "workers' battalion" and only digs ditches. After repeatedly striking the soldier in the face, the interrogator then pressures him to say "Allah is great," before telling the videographer to turn off the camera.

Subsequent footage shows one of the mujahedeen armed with a machine gun and then preparing the weapon for what appears to be a planned execution. Rogic is then shown bloodied and lying face-down on some rocks, apparently having been killed by his captors.

In June of this year the Belgrade newspaper Vecernje Novosti identified Rogic as part of the Radnicki Battalion. The newspaper published a still photograph of his corpse and reported he was born in 1957 in Sanski Most. He apparently was captured after becoming lost in the surrounding forest.

The video footage also depicts mujahedeen forces entering an Orthodox Christian church. One combatant throws down what appears to be a vial of incense before others mock sacred items, break up the altar and vandalize Byzantine-style icons while smiling and singing. One combatant raises his rifle and fires at the cross atop the altar.

The scene is followed by images of an elderly civilian dead by the roadside and a tractor dragging the body of what appears to be a civilian through the village.

Knowledge of the video has spread among citizens in the Balkans, said Trifunovic. "Approximately 10,000 people have now viewed it at the Sava Center in Belgrade."

The popularity of videos like the one from western Bosnia can be traced to "The Martyrs of Bosnia," which told the story of Arab mujahedeen fighting in the civil war, said Kohlmann. "That first video is considered an al-Qaeda 'classic,'" he added. "Footage of the desecration of the church in Guca Gora was featured in the video." It also includes footage of al Qaeda leaders and a cousin of Osama bin Laden.

"The Martyrs of Bosnia" was distributed by Azzam Publications, whose London-based leader, Babar Ahmad, is currently facing extradition to the U.S. related to charges that he materially supported terrorism and conspired to kill persons in a foreign country.

When that tape was released, said Kohlmann, law enforcement wiretaps recorded Islamists praising the participants in the videotape, calling for the killing of Serbs and fighting for the honor of Islam. "It inspired many terror cells," said Kohlmann.

The "Martyrs of Bosnia" was followed by two other compilations: "Operation Black Lion" and "Operation Badr." The latter featured "suicidal" waves of mujahedeen rushing Serbian soldiers. "It terrified everybody who watched it," said Kohlmann.

Earlier this year, Dragomir Adnan, police chief for the Republic of Srpska (RS), showed the video of Rade Rogic's killing and the church desecration in western Bosnia to an undisclosed group of people. Subsequently, the European Union Police Mission sought to downplay the video by issuing a statement on June 22 criticizing Adnan for his role in the civil war and stating that the video footage had been in the Republic of Srpska Office for Cooperation with the Hague for "a few years and it's nothing new."

The Mission's press release stated that the RS had been asked to forward the video material to The Hague and that "the transfer is on course."

According to a June 15 BBC report, the Belgrade newspaper Vecernje Novosti stated that its journalists were able to view the footage, which was said to be of the 505th Buzim Brigade of the Bosnian government. According to the report, the video originally featured other footage before the scene involving Rogic. That footage, the Belgrade newspaper reported, allegedly showed "heaps of mutilated bodies" and "torched villages."

The BBC reported that the Vecernje Novosti concluded the tape was not fit for broadcasting.

In the same report, the BBC noted that the publication of the Belgrade newspaper occurred a week after Serbian television showed video of Serb paramilitaries executing Muslims in Srebrenica ten years ago.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: balkans; bosnia; clintonlegacy; crushislam; fascists; islam; islamicagenda; islamisevil; islamisnotareligion; islamofacist; jihad; kosovo; muslim; muslims; serbia; trop; wrongwar
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-30 next last
What is it about the Jihadists that they love to film themselves killing the infidel?
1 posted on 08/11/2005 10:00:37 AM PDT by FormerLib
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: zagor-te-nej; Lion in Winter; Honorary Serb; jb6; Incorrigible; DTA; ma bell; joan; vooch; ...

A Balkans ping.


2 posted on 08/11/2005 10:01:21 AM PDT by FormerLib (Kosova: "land stolen from Serbs and given to terrorist killers in a futile attempt to appease them.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cornpone; Cronos; MarMema; FormerLib; EzekielCode; Honorary Serb; Lion in Winter; GarySpFc; ...

How typically Islamic


3 posted on 08/11/2005 10:03:24 AM PDT by jb6 ( Free Haghai Sophia! Crusade!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FormerLib
What is it about the Jihadists that they love to film themselves killing the infidel?

Their mentality is exactly the same as a bunch of teenagers videotaping their smash-and-grab joy-ride. They are sick, stupid people.
4 posted on 08/11/2005 10:05:28 AM PDT by Antoninus (Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini, Hosanna in excelsis!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FormerLib

blood lust. Besides we are infidels, it like killing animals for them.


5 posted on 08/11/2005 10:05:56 AM PDT by minus_273
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Antoninus

The kind of video you'd expect from a death cult.


6 posted on 08/11/2005 10:12:46 AM PDT by Ilky Hucktar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: All

Paging Wes Clark


7 posted on 08/11/2005 10:15:27 AM PDT by TheSorcererwiththeCosmicKey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: FormerLib
Vecernje Novosti concluded the tape was not fit for broadcasting. In the same report, the BBC noted that the publication of the Belgrade newspaper occurred a week after Serbian television showed video of Serb paramilitaries executing Muslims in Srebrenica ten years ago.

Why the one is "fit for broadcasting" and another is not? Because it would undermine the Kangaroo Tribunal in Hague? Or because it would present Christian Serbs as human beings?

8 posted on 08/11/2005 10:16:22 AM PDT by A. Pole (" There is no other god but Free Market, and Adam Smith is his prophet ! ")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FormerLib

"Put your hands on the RADIO!"

Can Ye NOT feel the LOVE?

Feel the LOVE!


9 posted on 08/11/2005 10:19:55 AM PDT by porkchops 4 mahound (Religion of Peace my royal Irish A$$!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FormerLib; jan in Colorado; Salem; backhoe
BTTT


islam explained

10 posted on 08/11/2005 10:22:30 AM PDT by EdReform (Free Republic - helping to keep our country a free republic. Thank you for your financial support!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FormerLib

Religion of Peace, ya know


11 posted on 08/11/2005 10:23:37 AM PDT by AppyPappy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FormerLib; Agrarian; Kolokotronis; kosta50; ezfindit; Graves; Sober 4 Today; A. Pole

God bless the Serbian people.


12 posted on 08/11/2005 10:45:46 AM PDT by MarMema
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cronos; broadsword

ping


13 posted on 08/11/2005 10:47:48 AM PDT by MarMema
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Doctor13; MadelineZapeezda

extra ping


14 posted on 08/11/2005 10:49:30 AM PDT by MarMema
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: MarMema; FormerLib; Agrarian; kosta50; ezfindit; Graves; Sober 4 Today; A. Pole

"God bless the Serbian people."

Indeed!!!!!!!

I trust by the way that no one is surprised by this desecration.


15 posted on 08/11/2005 11:19:37 AM PDT by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: FormerLib
You left out the link to the video within the text:

Darko Trifunovic, deputy director of the Center for Security and Investigation of Terrorism at the Belgrade Institute for Political Studies, provided Cybercast News Service with a copy of the video during his recent visit to Washington, D.C. Cybercast News Service has edited the video to remove portions dealing with the killing of the Serbian soldier and other grisly images of corpses.

The video footage also depicts mujahedeen forces entering an Orthodox Christian church.


16 posted on 08/11/2005 11:26:41 AM PDT by joan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: TheSorcererwiththeCosmicKey; All

"Paging Wes Clark"

You would be referring to "The Napoleon of the Balkans"? "The Lion of Kosovo"? He before whom all children on passenger trains crossing the Balkan railroad bridges tremble?


17 posted on 08/11/2005 11:27:17 AM PDT by Graves (Remember Esphigmenou - Orthodoxy or Death!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: FormerLib
Christian Church destruction in Kosovo:

The Holy Trinity Monastery before and after the Muslims came.

The Church of the Holy Virgin in Musutiste before and after the destruction.

More here: http://www.kosovo.com/destruction.html

18 posted on 08/11/2005 11:30:42 AM PDT by FreedomCalls (It's the "Statue of Liberty," not the "Statue of Security.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FormerLib

Thanks for the ping, sending to all I know


19 posted on 08/11/2005 12:39:03 PM PDT by MadelineZapeezda (If you right click on Madeline Albright's image, my name should show up!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jb6; All

EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


20 posted on 08/11/2005 2:43:58 PM PDT by anonymoussierra (Nie b¹dŸ pochopny w duchu do gniewu, bo gniew przebywa w piersi g³upców)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-30 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson