Posted on 09/19/2001 10:34:01 AM PDT by konijn
Wednesday, September 19 11:37 PM SGT
Bin Laden's Balkan connection comes under scrutiny
BELGRADE, Sept 19 (AFP) -
Osama bin Laden's followers are active throughout the Balkans, with bases in Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania, Serbia's interior minister said Wednesday as Belgrade offered to share information with with the United States on their activities.
But in Tirana, Interior Minister Ilir Gjoni flatly denied that the tentacles of bin Laden's organisation had spread to Albania as did a spokesman for ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia.
Bin Laden, the prime suspect in the September 11 attacks against the World Trade Center and Pentagon, is living in Afghanistan under the protection of the ruling Taliban but is said to have followers in as many as 15 countries worldwide.
"Bin Laden's organisation has two bases in Bosnia-Hercegovina, two in Kosovo, and is also present in Albania," Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihailovic was quoted by the independent Beta news agency as saying.
Serbia's interior ministry had "a good deal of information on the activities" in the Balkans "of the world's best known promoter of terrorism," Mihailovic added.
"We know who is at the head of the branches of bin Laden's worldwide organisation, which is also present in Macedonia," he said.
But in Tirana officials poured scorn on Mihailovic's claims.
"Bin Laden's organisation does not have bases in Albania," Gjoni told AFP.
"Albania is determined to participate with all means at its disposal in the international struggle against terrorism," he said adding that Albania was ready to offer the United States "all necessary aid in this respect."
He said that in recent years Albania had been working in conjunction with the information services of several countries, including the United States and had "exchanged particularly useful information with them."
The minister refused to confirm allegations that bin Laden had visited Albania in 1994 as the head of a delegation of Saudi businessman.
"We adopted severe measures to prevent infiltrations on our territory by people sought after by other countries for alleged criminal activities," said Gjoni.
Since 1998, Albania -- with assistance from American information services -- has stopped and expelled around ten Arabs suspected of terrorist activites.
Gjoni said that since the US attacks, Albania had shored up its border controls.
Press reports in Albania suggest border police have been given a list of 12 suspects wanted by Interpol following the attacks in the US.
Ethnic Albanian fighters of the National Liberation Army of Macedonia also denied having links with bin Laden.
"An enormous distance separates us from the ideas put forward by Osama bin Laden," political representative Ali Ahmeti said in a statement sent to AFP in Tirana.
A spokesman for the Bosnian government denied allegations in the country's media that bin Laden holds a Bosnian passport.
Four hundred nationals of Islamic countries carry Bosnian passports, but a spokesman for Sarajevo, Amer Kapetanovic, said categorically that "Ossama bin Laden does not."
Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic met with US State Department officials visiting Belgrade on Tuesday and said that Serbia "knows the catastrophic consequences of terrorism" and was prepared to offer the United States "all the help necessary" to fight against it.
Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic told B92 radio station that the Belgrade could pass on information gathered by intelligence services to the United States to help track down those responsible for the attacks.
"There is no reason for us to keep what we know for ourselves, if indeed we hold information about anyone who could be involved in the attacks," Zinkovic said, cautiously adding that he believed intelligence services in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Europe "know more than we do."
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