Al-Qaeda on Trial: The Hague and Bosnian Muslim War Crimes, Part I

The war crimes indictments and trials of mujahedin and high-ranking Bosnian Muslim military leaders have received scant coverage in the US and Western media. The US government and media do not want to see the unraveling of their lies and deceptions in regard to the true goals and actions of the Islamic regime they aided and abetted during the 1990’s civil wars in Yugoslavia, as the full truth is too devastating. It damns the Clinton administration, other Western allies and media for aiding war criminals and terrorists while ignoring the result of this policy.

The key deception of US propaganda was to bless the regime of late Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic regime as a secular, tolerant, and multi-ethnic one. However, the trials of mujahedin at the Hague Tribunal have definitively exposed these lies and rather bolster the case that the US and its allies contravened all morally permissible rules of war – not to mention their own long-term interests - in arming, aiding and abetting Islamic terrorists in the Balkans.

The ICTY has brought war crimes charges against the following Bosnian Muslim military leaders: Enver Hadzihasanovic, Amir Kubura, Mehmed Alagic, Sefer Halilovic, the chief of the supreme command of the Bosnian Muslim Army, Naser Oric, the Bosnian Muslim military commander of Srebrenica, and, Rasim Delic, the wartime commander of the Bosnian Muslim army. Haliloviv is charged with command responsibility for the murder of 62 Bosnian Croat civilians in 1993 by Bosnian Muslim troops. Bosnian Muslim camp guards Hazim Delic and Esad Landzo were convicted for war crimes against Bosnian Serbs at the Celebici camp. Bosnian Muslim Zejnil Delalic was acquitted.

Bosnian Muslim War Crimes: The ICTY Trial of Enver Hadzihasanovic and Amir Kubura

On July 13, 2001, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicted senior Bosnian Muslim military commanders General Enver Hadzihasanovic and Colonel Amir Kubura on war crimes charges, in Case No: IT-01-47-PT. Bosnian Muslim General Mehmed Alagic, who commanded the Bosanska Krajina unit of the 3rd Corps, was also charged in the initial war crimes indictment, but died on March 7, 2003 while awaiting the start of the trial.

Initially, the defendants were charged with 19 counts, but this indictment was lessened to 13 counts (7 for Hadzihasanovic and 6 for Kubura). The trial, known as the “Central Bosnia” case, began on December 2, 2003.

Ironically, just 11 days earlier, the Hague had announced that former Bosnian Muslim President Alija Izetbegovic was being investigated as the ultimate mastermind of mujahedin war crimes. Conveniently for Western leaders who had fervently backed and aided Izetbegovic, October 22, 2003 was also the date of his funeral. Florence Hartmann, an ICTY spokeswoman, released a statement which was quoted in a BBC news story of that day (“Bosnia Leader Was War Crimes Suspect”): “Izetbegovic was one of the suspects who was under investigation…The fact he died means all investigations are stopped.”

This trial is important in that it shows the extent of al Qaeda involvement in the Bosnian Civil War of 1992-1995. Hadzihasanovic and Kubura are charged with command responsibility for war crimes committed by mujahedin troops in the Bosnian Muslim Army. These foreign Muslim Jihad or “Islamic holy warriors” were assembled in a special Bosnian Army unit called the “El Mujahed unit.” This unit committed some of the worst war crimes and crimes against humanity against Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat civilians and POWs.

The commander of the El Mujahed Battalion was Abu Abdel Aziz “Barbaros,” described as a “senior Al-Qaeda recruiter” in a report presented before the National Commission of Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (popularly known as the 9/11 Commission), chaired by Thomas H. Kean. Aziz, also known as Abdelrahman al-Dosari, was born in Saudi Arabia in 1942. He was a veteran of the mujahedin forces in Afghanistan during the 1980’s. At that time, he was given the nickname of “Hown” because he established a reputation as a skilled user of the Soviet-made “Hound” artillery rockets. He was an early member of the Al-Qaeda movement established by Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam.

After war broke out in Yugoslavia, Aziz was made the amir, or military commander of the Saudi Arabian and Afghani mujahedin in Bosnia. Aziz established his headquarters at the Mehurici camp outside of Travnik in central Bosnia. After the Bosnian civil war, Aziz attended the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA) from December 21-25, 1995 in Dearborn, Michigan, located just outside of Detroit.

Ekkehard Witkopf, the ICTY prosecutor, noted the significance of the mujahedin trial:

“This trial… will show war crimes were committed by both sides of the conflict in central Bosnia. This trial will give the world a more complete picture of the war in Bosnia.”

It is also the first “command responsibility” case to be tried at the Hague Tribunal. The defendants were charged with criminal responsibility for acts of murder, cruel treatment, wanton destruction and plunder of personal and private property of Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats, as well as the willful destruction of religious institutions.

In his presentation, Witkopf defined criminal responsibility as follows: “…they knew, or had reason to know, that the forces under their command had committed or were going to commit these acts… They did not take necessary and reasonable measures to prevent them or punish those who committed them.”

Enver Hadzihasanovic was the commander of the 3rd Corps of the Muslim Army of Bosnia and Hercegovina (ABiH). He was later made part of the joint command of the Bosnian Muslim Army and was the Chief of the Supreme Command Staff. For his part, Amir Kubura became the commander of the 7th Muslim Brigade of the 3rd Corps of the Army of Bosnia. They were both charged with war crimes by the ICTY for command and control responsibility.

The 7th Muslim Brigade was formed on November 19, 1992 based in Zenica. It was comprised of three battalions: The first was located in Travnik, the second in Zenica, and the third in Kakanj. It was used as an “infantry manoeuvre unit” in the Bosnian Muslim Army.

In April, 2004, Agences France Presse quoted Bosnian media as reporting that the ICTY was preparing indictments against wartime Bosnian Muslim Vice-President Ejup Ganic, Interior Minister Bakir Alispahic and 3rd Corps Commander Sakib Mahmuljanin, as well as 56 year-old General Rasim Delic.

Barely two weeks ago, on February 22, 2005, the ICTY announced the indictment against General Delic. He surrendered voluntarily and on March 3 entered a ‘not guilty’ plea, stating that he was “happy to appear,” according to UPI (“Bosnian Pleads Not Guilty to War Crimes,” March 3, 2005).

Delic joins the top Bosnian Muslim military leader and highest-ranking Bosnian Muslim to face war crimes charges, Sefer Halilovic, who is already on trial at The Hague. Thus the top four wartime Bosnian Muslim military leaders have now been indicted for war crimes against Bosnian Serb civilians and POWs.

Delic served as commander of the Bosnian Muslim army during the 1992-95 war. He told AFP that “…the indictment is related to my alleged indirect responsibility in forming of El Mujaheed unit and its actions.”

AFP describes this unit as consisting of “...fighters from Islamic countries fighting alongside the Muslim-led Bosnian army.” More specifically, the ICTY has charged Delic with war crimes committed by the El Mujaheed unit, which was part of the Bosnian Muslim 3rd Army Corps, “…against ethnic Serbs in the area of Ozren and Vozuca in central Bosnia.”

However, Delic stated in his defense that “…the El Mujaheed unit was far away from me in the chain of command. There were three command levels between me and them.”

That is not the way the Hague sees it. The tribunal charges that Delic did have responsibility for the mujahedin unit, which is charged with the murder of at least 60 Bosnian Serb POWs at the Kamenica Camp. The mujahedin also raped and sexually abused 3 Bosnian Serb women who were imprisoned at the camp. Finally, the mujahedin are also charged with the murder and cruel treatment of Bosnian Serb civilians, as well as the June 1993 mass execution of 24 Bosnian Croat POWs outside of Maline.

How many mujahedin troops were in Bosnia? Estimates range from several thousand up to ten thousand troops. “Mujahedin” or “holy warriors” began arriving in Bosnia in the summer of 1992 from Saudi Arabia. The Arabic word ‘mujahedin’ means one who is a “struggler” or one who is willing “to do battle” In the modern context, it means to be a soldier or guerrilla waging a war in the name of Islam, a religious war. It comes from the Arabic root jhd, Jihad, and means someone who wages a struggle for Islam.

In Islam, there is no distinction between the political and religious sector. All aspects of a person’s life should be guided by Islam, meaning that ideally at least it is not only a religion, but a way of life. Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic explained this unity of Islam and the state in his book, the Islamic Declaration (1970; republished, 1990):

A Muslim generally does not exist as an individual. If he wishes to live and survive as a Muslim, he must create an environment, a community, and order…History knows of no true Islamic movement which was not at the same time a political movement as well…. The shortest definition of the Islamic order defines it as a unity of faith and law … spiritual community and state…

There is no religious or political tolerance in an Islamic state, according to Izetbegovic: “There can be no peace or coexistence between the ‘Islamic faith’ and non-Islamic societies and political institutions.”

Saudi Arabia sent mujahedin to Bosnia first and organized the guerrilla effort because Saudi Arabs see themselves not only as the protectors and guardians of Islam, but in fact as its creators. Saudi Arabia is regarded as the base or center of Islam, since Mecca and Medina are located there. The yearly pilgrimage or haj is made to Saudi Arabia each year by Muslims. Moreover, the language of The Koran and or Islamic religious texts is in Arabic.

The Wahhabi sect of Islam in Saudi Arabia is a radical fundamentalist version of Islam founded by Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792). The Wahhabi movement advocates the “oneness” of Allah and of Islam, rejecting the Shi’ite or Sufi sects of Islam. Wahhabism seeks to establish a single version of Islam that interprets The Koran strictly. It aims to Saudi Arabia dominance over global Islam. Islam is an Arabic religion and way of life. This is why Saudi Arabia was there first. It is about self-interest.

The ICTY indictment noted that mujahedin “were prepared to conduct a ‘Jihad’ or ‘Holy War’ in Bosnia.” Osama bin Laden’s right hand man and top lieutenant, Saudi Abu Sulaiman al-Makki, was part of the first mujahedin force to arrive in Bosnia, a group recruited, financed, and organized by bin Laden himself.

Al-Makki joined Aziz in the first attack by about 43 Saudi Arabian mujahedeen in central Bosnia against Bosnian Serb forces. This is the well-known engagement in which the mujahedin decapitated three Bosnian Serb troops near Teslic and held their heads as war trophies. The objective behind this horrendous deed was to create terror and panic amongst the kafir or kaurin, that is, the infidels and the unbelievers. However, al-Makki was paralyzed from the waist down in combat against Bosnian Serb troops.

The decapitation of Serb prisoners was by no means the major symbolic “success” of al-Makki’s career. After the conclusion of the Bosnian wars, he went on to mastermind the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 US sailors. He was also shown in the famous video released in 2001 where Osama bin Laden and he are shown sitting on a couch discussing the 9/11 attacks. Bin Laden takes full responsibility for them in this video. Al-Makki has a blanket over his legs in the video.

We now know that other senior Al-Qaeda leaders fought and in some cases were seriously injured in Bosnia. German reporter Renate Flottau of Der Spiegel reported that she personally saw and spoke to Osama bin Laden in 1994, when he allegedly visited Alija Izetbegovic in Sarajevo. Bin Laden had been issued a Bosnian passport by the Bosnian Embassy in Vienna in 1993. One of the suicide hijackers in the 9/11 attacks also had a Bosnian passport. Moreover, four to six Bosnian citizens, Algerian Muslim mujahedin who were granted Bosnian citizenship by the Bosnian Muslim government were later arrested by US forces and sent to the Guantanamo Bay prison where they were questioned on their connections to Al-Qaeda.

Eykyn, George. “’Mujahidin rush to join Islamic fundamentalists in war.” The Times of London, September 23, 1992.

---Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Second Report Submitted to the Commission of Experts. 1993, IHRLI Doc. No. 28401-29019.

Fisk, Robert. “To Sarajevo, by way of Riyadh.” The Independent, December 22, 1992.

Kohlmann, Evan F. Al-Qaida’s Jihad in Europe: The Afghan-Bosnian Network. Oxford: Berg, 2004.

---“Right of peoples to self-determination: Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination.” United Nations General Assembly Item 106, Provisional Agenda, August 28,1995.

O’Neill, Brendan. “How We Trained Al-Qa’eda.” The Spectator. September 13, 2003.

Post, Tom with Joel Brand. “Help From the Holy Warriors.” Newsweek, October 5, 1992.

Wiebes, Cees. Intelligence and the War in Bosnia, 1992-1995. Munster, LIT Verlag; New Brunswick: Transaction, 2003.

The key deception of US propaganda was to bless the regime of late Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic regime as a secular, tolerant, and multi-ethnic one.
HA! HA! HA! Here's some of his quotes:

QUOTE:

"... Do we want the Muslim nations to cease moving in circles, to stop being dependent, backward and poverty-stricken;

do we want them to once again with a sure step climb the road of dignity and enlightment and to become masters of their own fate;

do we want the springs of courage, genius and virtue to come forth strongly once again;

then we must show the way which leads to that objective:

The implementation of Islam in all fields of individuals' personal lives, in family and in society, by renewal of the Islamic religious thought and creating a uniform Muslim community from Morocco to Indonesia. ..."

page 3

"... A nation, and an individual, who has accepted Islam is incapable of living and dying for another ideal after that fact. It is unthinkable for a Muslim to sacrifice himself for any tzar or ruler, no matter what his name may be, or for the glory of any nation, party or some such, because acting on the strongest Muslim instinct he recognizes in this a certain type of godlessness and idolatry. A Muslim can die only with the name of Allah on his lips and for the glory of Islam, or he may run away from the battlefield. ..."

page 4

"... Muslim nations will never accept anything that is explicitly against Islam, because Islam here is not merely a faith and the law, Islam has become love and compassion. He who rises against Islam will reap nothing but hate and resistance. ..."

page 17

"... In perspective, there is but one way out in sight: creation and gathering of a new intelligence which thinks and feels along Islamic lines. This intelligence would then raise the flag of the Islamic order and together with the Muslim masses embark into action to implement this order. ..."

page 18

"... The shortest definition of the Islamic order defines it as a unity of faith and law, upbringing and force, ideals and interests, spiritual community and state, free will and force. As a synthesis of these components, the Islamic order has two fundamental premises: an Islamic society and Islamic authority. The former is the essence, and the latter the form of an Islamic order. An Islamic society without Islamic power is incomplete and weak; Islamic power without an Islamic society is either a utopia or violence.

A Muslim generally does not exist as an individual. If he wishes to live and survive as a Muslim, he must create an environment, a community, an order. He must change the world or be changed himself. History knows of no true Islamic movement which was not at the same time a political movement as well. This is because Islam is a faith, but also a philosophy, a set of moral codes, an order of things, a style, an atmosphere - in a nutshell, an integral way of life. ..."

page 19

"... The first and foremost of such conclusions is surely the one on the incompatibility of Islam and non-Islamic systems. There can be no peace or coexistence between the "Islamic faith" and non- Islamic societies and political institutions. ... Islam clearly excludes the right and possibility of activity of any strange ideology on its own turf. Therefore, there is no question of any laicistic principles, and the state should be an expression and should support the moral concepts of the religion. ..."

page 22

" Islam contains the principle of ummet, i.e. the tendency towards unification of all Muslims into a single community - a spiritual, cultural and political community. Islam is not a nationality, it is above nationalities. ..."

page 27

"... The upbringing of the nation, and especially the mass media - the press, TV and film - should be in the hands of people whose Islamic moral and intellectual authority is undisputed. ...

... Islamic renewal cannot be initiated without a religious, and cannot be successfully continued and concluded without a political revolution."

page 32

"... Establishing of an Islamic order is thus shown as the ultimate act of democracy, because it means the implementation of the deepest desires of the Muslim nations and common man. One thing is certain: no matter what a part of the rich and the intelligence wants, the common man wants Islam and living in his Islamic community. ..."

page 33

"... In the struggle for an Islamic order all methods are permitted, except one - except crime. No-one has the right to smear the beautiful name of Islam and this struggle by uncontrolled and excessive use of violence. ..."

page 37

"... Islamic order may be implemented only in countries where Muslims represent the majority of the population. Without this majority, the Islamic order is reduced to authority only (because the other element is lacking - the Islamic society), and may turn into violence. ..."

page 37

"... the Islamic movement should and must start taking over the power as soon as it is morally and numerically strong enough to not only overthrow the existing non-Islamic, but also to build up a new Islamic authority. ..."

page 43

"... Pakistan was a general rehearsal of introducing Islamic order under modern conditions and on the present stage of development. ...

... The conclusions from the twenty-odd year of Pakistan's existence are clear enough. They are:

First, the struggle for Islamic order and a general reconstruction of the Muslim society can be successfully conducted only by experienced and seasoned individuals, aligned into a staunch and homogenous organization. This organization is no political party from the arsenal of the Western democracy; it is a movement based on Islamic ideology and with clear moral and ideological criteria of belonging;

Second, the struggle for an Islamic order today is a struggle to implement the essence of Islam, and this means that in practice one must ensure religious and moral upbringing of the people and provide for basic elements of social justice. At this time, forms are of secondary importance; and

Third, the functions of the Islamic republic are not to primarily declare equality of all men and brotherhood of all Muslims, but to struggle for some of these high moral principles in practice. The awakened Islam should in every community take into its own hands the flag for a more just social order and to clearly state that in struggling for Islam another war is being declared as well, the one against ignorance, injustice and poverty, a war without compromises and setbacks. ..."

pages 45-46

"... In one of the thesis for an Islamic order today we have stated that it is a natural function of the Islamic order to gather all Muslims and Muslim communities throughout the world into one. Under present conditions, this desire means a struggle for creating a great Islamic federation from Morocco to Indonesia, from the tropical Africa to the Central Asia. ..."

page 46

"... Panislamism always came from the very heart of the Muslim peoples, nationalism was always imported stuff. ..."

page 49

"... But, under the leadership of Zionists, started an action in Palestine which is not only inhumane and ruthless but also shortsighted and adventuresome. This politics takes in account only temporary ratio of power and forgets about overall ratio of power between Jews and Muslims in the world. This politics in Palestine is a provocation to all Muslims of the world. Jerusalem is not only a question of Palestinians, neither is it a question of Arabs only. It is a question of all the Muslim nations. TO KEEP JERUSALEM, THE JEWS WOULD HAVE TO DEFEAT ISLAM AND THE MUSLIMS, AND THAT - THANK GOD - IS OUTSIDE THEIR POWER."

page 53

"... We would like to distinguish between Jews and Zionists, but only if Jews themselves find strength to find the difference. We hope that the military victories, which they had against quarrelling Arab regimes, (not against Arabs or against Muslims) will not blur their minds. We hope that they will eliminate confrontation which they made by them- selves, so the new road is open to a life on the common ground of Palestine. If they, though, continue on the road of arrogance, which is more likely, then for the whole Islam movement, and FOR ALL MUSLIMS THERE IS BUT ONE SOLUTION: TO CONTINUE TO FIGHT, TO STRENGTHEN AND BROADEN IT, FROM DAY TO DAY, FROM YEAR TO YEAR, NO MATTER THE VICTIMS AND NO MATTER THE TIME it may last, until they are forced to RETURN EVERY INCH OF THE OCCUPIED LAND. EVERY NEGOTIATION AND EVERY COMPROMISE ON THIS FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE FOR OUR BROTHERS IN PALESTINE, WILL BE A TREASON WHICH MAY DESTROY THE VERY CORE OF THE MORAL SYSTEM OF OUR WORLD.

These are not new laws of our new Islam politics toward Christians and Jews, not new laws dictated by the new political situation. They are just the practical conclusions taken from the Islamic recognition of Christians and Jews which come right from the Qu'ran (Qu'ran, 29/45, 2/136, 5/47-49)

pages 53-54

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