January 16, 2004

ERP KiM Newsletter 16-01-04

Serb participation in working groups impossible until the process is reverted to the foundations of UNSCR 1244

Serbian Orthodox Church expects the New Serbian Government to take a more resolute course and stop the process of gradual "kosovarization" better to say "Albanization" of its southern Province. By its tacit approval of 4 year's policy of ethnic discrimination and cleansing of the Serbian population UNMIK is no longer considered by Kosovo Serbs as an evenhanded party and has lost its moral credibility failing to prevent continuation of violence and discrimination. Kosovo and Metohija today are more monoethnic than ever in its long history, the religious and ethnic rights of Orthodox Serbs are blatantly denied while the institutions established by UNMIK are used as tools of institutional repression.

No one can force Serbs to work in joint groups - Covic
President of the Coordination center for Kosovo and Metohija Dr. Nebojsa Covic
at the press conference after the meeting with UNMIK's chief Harri Holkeri
Belgrade, January 15, 2004

CONTENTS:

Serb participation in working groups impossible until the process is reverted to the foundations of UNSCR 1244

Serbian Orthodox Church expects the New Serbian Government to take a more resolute course and stop the process of gradual "kosovarization" better to say "Albanization" of its southern Province. By its tacit approval of 4 year's policy of ethnic discrimination and cleansing of the Serbian population UNMIK is no longer considered by Kosovo Serbs as an evenhanded party and has lost its moral credibility failing to prevent continuation of violence and discrimination. Kosovo and Metohija today are more monoethnic than ever in its long history, the religious and ethnic rights of Orthodox Serbs are blatantly denied while the institutions established by UNMIK are used as tools of institutional repression.

No one can force Serbs to join the working groups Covic
Head of the Kosovo-Metohija coordination centre Nebojsa Covic has said that he will meet with UNMIK chief Harri Holkeri in Belgrade on Thursday, and will inform him of a clear stand that, in a situation in which violence paralyses all processes in Kosovo, Serbs will not accept to join working groups in charge of standards modification.

St. Andrews Foundation prepares report on genocide in Kosovo
The Foundation of St. Andrew the First-Called is preparing a report to PACE, UNESCO and UN on the violation of rights of national minorities (Serbs) in Kosovo and Metohija /Serbia/ and on the condition of Orthodox shrines. Many of them are already destroyed and others are facing the threat of destruction by Albanian extremists, President of the Foundation of St. Andrew the First-Called Alexander Melnik told a press conference in RIA Novosti on the trip to Kosovo and Metohija on January

Serbs oppose removal of the checkpoint in Velika Hoca
The Serbian community of this region harshly opposed this declaration for the removal of the checkpoint. They asked KFOR to not remove the defense post, as they call the checkpoint. Dejan Balosevic is the first one that reacted against such decision taken by KFOR. "From the moment this checkpoint was set, until now no incident was registered," said Balosevic adding that the road in this village is considered of a high danger.

AFP, NATO troop numbers to be slashed in Bosnia, Kosovo
The number of NATO troops serving in Bosnia and Kosovo, which are still recovering from bitter inter-ethnic conflicts, is to be slashed by nearly half by November, a senior French minister announced on Tuesday.

Ominous rumblings in Montenegro - BALKANANALYSIS Report
However, could it not be said that every Albanian militant movement would have foundered, without massive outside attention and assistance, from the 19th century until now? Is it not true that without the overt and covert help of the West, the KLA would have been crushed in 1999, leaving little chance for the situation to get out of control in 2001 in Macedonia? And even then, had the Great Powers not supported it, that the Macedonian authorities would have eliminated the group again? In this context, it can be claimed that every Albanian liberation movement has been a virtual creation, owing its successes largely to outside forces.

Back to the Balkans - Calls for renewed intervention
Is the Balkans back in Washington vogue? After a couple of seemingly isolationist years (that were, of course, nothing of the sort) when the limelight was on the Middle East, there's been a renewed push by the forces of punditry to get the peninsula back on the Imperial agenda. Underneath dire warnings and venomous denunciations lies a hunger to revisit the scene of Clintonian triumphs as the Great Bush Adventure keeps foundering in the sand. Triumph of the Radicals in the recent Serbian parliamentary election may have provided the opportunity, but it is unlikely the renewed interest in the south-eastern corner of Europe is unrelated to the politics of the upcoming American election.

BALKANS - Millions of illegal guns threaten peace
The amnesty for surrendering illegal arms to the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR) saw only 155 small weapons handed over until last September. International organisations say there are more than 400,000 illegally held small arms around. Weapons have run in Kosovan families for generations. The perceived need to defend themselves from the Serbian army gave Kosovans more reason to hold on to their weapons and get new ones. Little can be done immediately to change the situation, Kosovan sociologist Blerim Latifi said at the round table meeting. "Pictures of armed people in schools around Kosovo, and posters and statues of former KLA fighters with weapons keep the gun culture alive."

Terrorism threats to Olympics and the Balkans
GIS has gained significant additional intelligence from Muslim sources in Bosnia and elsewhere in the Balkans which highlights the ongoing nature of the threat, and points to a major planned terrorist attack against a US target in the near future, either in Sarajevo or Mostar, but most probably the latter. Specific new, firm intelligence on this and related matters appear in the latter part of this report.


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Serb participation in working groups impossible as long as the process is not reverted to the foundations of UNSCR 1244

Serbian Orthodox Church expects the New Serbian Government to take a more resolute course and stop the process of gradual "kosovarization" better to say "Albanization" of its southern Province. By its tacit approval of 4 year's policy of ethnic discrimination and cleansing of the Serbian population UNMIK is no longer considered by Kosovo Serbs as an evenhanded party and has lost its moral credibility failing to prevent continuation of violence and discrimination. Kosovo and Metohija today are more monoethnic than ever in its long history, the religious and ethnic rights of Orthodox Serbs are blatantly denied while the institutions established by UNMIK are used as tools of institutional repression.

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Editorial, Fr. Sava Janjic

ERPKIM Info-Service
Gracanica January 15, 2004

Insisting of the UNMIK chief Mr. Harri Holkeri that Serb representatives in Kosovo Parliament should participate in the work of working groups on implementation of "Standards for Kosovo" is considered impossible as long as the institutionalizaiton in Kosovo is not firmly based on principles stated in the UNSC Resolution 1244.

1. "Standards for Kosovo" is a document with positive ideas but is lacking the basic provisions granted by the UNSC Resolution 1244 and therefore in the opinion of the Serb representatives Holkeri's plan is nothing but a revision of the UNSC Resolution. The UN Resolution itself contains important set of standards which must be implemented before the process of final status settlement is opened. Ignoring the UN Resolution and promoting a new, revised set of standards with additional elements (concerning the former UCK, i.e. Kosovo Protection Corps) is leading to overall revision of the UNSCR 1244 without the approval of the Security Council.

2. Serb representatives proposed revision of Standards implementation plan which would include more concrete safeguards that Kosovo institutions in the temporary period before the final status settlement would function within the framework of the "substantial autonomy within Serbia Montenegro". Otherwise, the very participation in such institutions leads to prejudicing of the final status because in one year's time there will be only one option for the final status available - secession. One of the basic preconditions is the implementation of the Covic - Haekkerup plan, signed by UNMIK and the Belgrade Government in 2001 which envisages active cooperation between UNMIK and Belgrade on implementation of the 1244 UNSCR.

3. Coordination Center for Kosovo and Metohija with Coalition Povratak prepared a set of provisions which should guarantee better protection of human rights of the Serb community and protection of the state sovereignty in its southern Province. However UNMIK which is under pressure of Kosovo Albanian leaders and institutions rejected almost all of these proposals and is trying to proclaim "Standards for Kosovo" as "a Bible" in which a single letter cannot be changed.

4. Coalition Povratak does not enjoy support or mandate from the Serbian community in Kosovo and Metohija to participate in any process which would lead towards secession of the Serbian sovereign territory. No matter how unrealistic Serbia-Montenegro sovereignty seemed to some UNMIK and other international officials Kosovo status cannot be settled by the policy of dictate, fait accomplis and force. In that case the stability of the entire region would be dramatically challenged. Kosovo Serb representatives find especially provoking Holkeri's idea to create Kosovo diplomatic offices which will be headed by UNMIK but in which local Kosovo staff would work. Foreign relations is a function reserved for the state and only UNMIK during its temporary protectorate can handle this issue.

5. Serbian Orthodox Church expects the New Serbian Government to take a more resolute course and stop the process of gradual "kosovarization" better to say "Albanization" of its southern Province. By its tacit approval of 4 year's policy of ethnic discrimination and cleansing of the Serbian population UNMIK is no longer considered by Kosovo Serbs as an evenhanded party and has lost its moral credibility failing to prevent continuation of violence and discrimination. Kosovo and Metohija today are more monoethnic than ever in its long history, the religious and ethnic rights of Orthodox Serbs are blatantly denied while the institutions established by UNMIK are used as tools of institutional repression.

6. The best solution to get out form the present deadlock is to promote a more precise and clear Standards implementation plan which would bring the process of building Kosovo's autonomous institutions on the foundations of the UNSC Resolution 1244 which is still the most important legal document for the work of Kosovo Mission. The new Serbian Government is expected to insist more on implementation of 1244 UNSCR provisions concerning the "substantial autonomy of Kosovo within Serbia and Montenegro" as well as the return of the Serb-Montenegrin personnel on its international borders and in vicinity of the major patrimonial sites as it is stipulated by the UN Resolution.

7. In case that UNMIK continues with abrogation of UNSC Resolution 1244, Kosovo Serbs will be compelled to withdraw from Kosovo's institutions alltogether and create parallel institutional system, taking other measures of their own protection. Continuation of UNMIK's policy in creating an ethnically clean Albanian society in Kosovo with monoethnic institutions will face a strong resistance not only of Kosovo Serbs but also of the Serbian state in which the majority of voters do not approve the UNMIK pro-Albanian policy nor would ever agree with secession of a part of their sovereign territory.

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No one can force Serbs to join the working groups - Covic

Head of the Kosovo-Metohija coordination centre Nebojsa Covic has said that he will meet with UNMIK chief Harri Holkeri in Belgrade on Thursday, and will inform him of a clear stand that, in a situation in which violence paralyses all processes in Kosovo, Serbs will not accept to join working groups in charge of standards modification.

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Tanjug News Agency
Belgrade, January 14, 2004

Head of the Kosovo-Metohija coordination centre Nebojsa Covic has said that he will meet with UNMIK chief Harri Holkeri in Belgrade on Thursday, and will inform him of a clear stand that, in a situation in which violence paralyses all processes in Kosovo, Serbs will not accept to join working groups in charge of standards modification.

They want to make us "softer and to frighten us, but we have no intention of giving up the principles which are clear, i.e. that the task of UNMIK is to create a basic autonomy for Kosovo in scope of Serbia and Montenegro," Covic told a press conference at the Democratic Alternative (DA) headquarters.

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St Andrew foundation prepares report on genocide in Kosovo

The Foundation of St. Andrew the First-Called is preparing a report to PACE, UNESCO and UN on the violation of rights of national minorities (Serbs) in Kosovo and Metohija /Serbia/ and on the condition of Orthodox shrines. Many of them are already destroyed and others are facing the threat of destruction by Albanian extremists, President of the Foundation of St. Andrew the First-Called Alexander Melnik told a press conference in RIA Novosti on the trip to Kosovo and Metohija on January

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MOSCOW, January 13, 2004. /RIA Novosti correspondent Olga Lipich/.

The Foundation of St. Andrew the First-Called is preparing a report to PACE, UNESCO and UN on the violation of rights of national minorities (Serbs) in Kosovo and Metohija /Serbia/ and on the condition of Orthodox shrines. Many of them are already destroyed and others are facing the threat of destruction by Albanian extremists, President of the Foundation of St. Andrew the First-Called Alexander Melnik told a press conference in RIA Novosti on the trip to Kosovo and Metohija on January

4-8 by the delegation of the foundation, representatives of the Federation Council, the Russian Orthodox Church and Russia media.

"We should stir up public consciousness of the world community. We saw real genocide in Kosovo and Metohija. Serbs are oppressed, they live in reservations which are protected by KFOR from Albanian extremists.

However, murders and destruction of Serbian houses and churches continue. There are victims among peacekeepers," Melnik said.

According to him, since 1999 more than 250,000 Serbs were driven out of their houses. Thousands of them were killed. There are less than 130,000 Serbs in Kosovo. More than 120 monasteries and churches were destroyed including unique cultural monuments of the 11th-14th centuries.

"We believe that stability, peace and quiet cannot be established for one nation. Rights of national minorities should be duly observed and cultural and historic legacy of the world importance should be preserved in Kosovo and Metohija," the President of the Foundation of St. Andrew the First-Called concluded.


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Serbs oppose the removal of the checkpoint in Velika Hoca

The Serbian community of this region harshly opposed this declaration for the removal of the checkpoint. They asked KFOR to not remove the defense post, as they call the checkpoint. Dejan Balosevic is the first one that reacted against such decision taken by KFOR. "From the moment this checkpoint was set, until now no incident was registered," said Balosevic adding that the road in this village is considered of a high danger.

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Koha Ditore, Pristina
January 14, 2004

In Orahovac Municipal Assembly meeting, KFOR declared that the conditions were created for the return of the displaced people and that during this week, the checkpoint at the entrance of Velika Hoca village would be removed.

The Serbian community of this region harshly opposed this declaration for the removal of the checkpoint. They asked KFOR to not remove the defense post, as they call the checkpoint. Dejan Balosevic is the first one that reacted against such decision taken by KFOR. "From the moment this checkpoint was set, until now no incident was registered," said Balosevic adding that the road in this village is considered of a high danger.

Balosevic said the checkpoint was the security for the Serbian community of this village, whereas when this checkpoint is removed, then this road will not be secured anymore.
Also Cveta Jovicic said that it is not the proper time for the checkpoint to be removed. He appealed KFOR solders to continue to stay where they are.

Referring this issue, Jovan Djuricic considered that the existence of checkpoint has a psychological meaning for the residents of Velika Hoca. "So, as resident of this village, I ask you for the checkpoint to continue to stay," he said to KFOR officials.

Nevertheless, these officials didn't give any answer about their declaration.

On the other side, KPS sergeant, Nesim Mullaabazi that is officer of ethnic matters, informed that if KFOR removes the checkpoint, then KPS prepared the operative plan, in which case it is foreseen to increase the police patrols at the road in Velika Hoca.

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NATO troop numbers to be slashed in Bosnia, Kosovo

The number of NATO troops serving in Bosnia and Kosovo, which are still recovering from bitter inter-ethnic conflicts, is to be slashed by nearly half by November, a senior French minister announced on Tuesday.

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Agence France Presse
Paris, January, 13, 2004


The number of NATO troops serving in Bosnia and Kosovo, which are still recovering from bitter inter-ethnic conflicts, is to be slashed by nearly half by November, a senior French minister announced on Tuesday.

Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told parliamentarians in the French lower house, the National Assembly, that the figure would be reduced "from 30,500 troops today in all to 17,500 by November."

She said much progress had been made in the troubled Balkans regions, and this was reflected notably by the return of displaced people.

"But despite this, the situation is still delicate and unstable in some places and especially in Kosovo," she added.

"This is the reason the disengagement by the allies is taking place gradually over the entire Balkans region," she said, adding that the troop reduction in Bosnia and Kosovo would be carried out in parallel in both places.

Bosnia was ripped apart in a brutal and chaotic three-year war involving the Bosnian Croat, Serb and Muslim communities in the early 1990s.

Kosovo has been under UN and NATO control since 1999, when a two-year war between separatists from the ethnic Albanian majority and Serbian forces controlled by Belgrade was ended by NATO intervention.

Alliot-Marie also said France would be taking over command of the NATO operation in Kosovo in the second half of 2004 and that Paris would insist on partner countries maintaining troop levels there.

"Following that we shall of course continue to work closely with the United Nations High Representative so that gradually, through elections and the setting in place of institutions, this country can get back to normal," she told French lawmakers.

She added that the programme of gradual withdrawal of NATO troops would take account of the evolving situation in the region.


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Ominous Rumblings in Montenegro

However, could it not be said that every Albanian militant movement would have foundered, without massive outside attention and assistance, from the 19th century until now? Is it not true that without the overt and covert help of the West, the KLA would have been crushed in 1999, leaving little chance for the situation to get out of control in 2001 in Macedonia? And even then, had the Great Powers not supported it, that the Macedonian authorities would have eliminated the group again? In this context, it can be claimed that every Albanian liberation movement has been a virtual creation, owing its successes largely to outside forces.

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BALKANALYSIS

Ominous Rumblings in Montenegro?
Posted on Thursday, January 15 @ 03:00:00 EST by CDeliso

Another one from the don't-say-we-didn't-warn-you file: a new and unknown Albanian militant organization, the so-called "Montenegro National Army," has sprung up and issued its own list of demands, namely, de facto autonomy for Albanian-inhabited parts of the Adriatic republic.

It has been quite clear that such a thing would happen. All one had to do was follow the inexorable logic of the Balkans. Other parts of the world worry about nuclear mishaps or the atomic threat; here we have only the logic of atomization, which began with the break-up of the large republics of Yugoslavia.

Following the Kosovo fiasco, and indeed closely linked with it, the time has apparently become ripe for more separatist mischief in Serbia's junior partner republic. As things fall apart further, and America's irrational frenzy to "punish" Serbia as much as possible (as if it posed a threat to anyone but itself) reaches its final stages, the chances for destabilizing the whole region increase. For once Montenegro "goes," and whatever limited Albanian militant action begins, the province may also well be afflicted by as-yet unstated separatist rumblings in the Sandjak border area with Serbia, a small region connecting Bosnia and Kosovo and with a sizable Muslim population. As a direct result of Western intervention and meddling, the Balkans is reverting to the last days of the Ottoman Empire- when everything was up for grabs and separatism was in the air.

Montenegrin authorities, as well as Albanian parties, were quick to deny any knowledge of the group and to denounce its methods. So far, the biggest sign of life from this mysterious bunch has been a website, one very similar to other Albanian militant websites. Not that there might be any relation, of course.

As with all the post-2001 "liberation" armies, this one is still largely virtual. Most of the continuing terrorist attacks in Kosovo and Macedonia were small and disorganized, lending credence to official dismissals of the terrorists as "criminals" or "mentally unbalanced"
individuals having no real popular support. The virtual, it is believed, is not so dangerous.

However, could it not be said that every Albanian militant movement would have foundered, without massive outside attention and assistance, from the 19th century until now? Is it not true that without the overt and covert help of the West, the KLA would have been crushed in 1999, leaving little chance for the situation to get out of control in 2001 in Macedonia? And even then, had the Great Powers not supported it, that the Macedonian authorities would have eliminated the group again? In this context, it can be claimed that every Albanian liberation movement has been a virtual creation, owing its successes largely to outside forces.

Yet even in the most limited and minor of cases- such as seems to be the case in Montenegro now- the virtual becomes more dangerous than the real, in its imminent and continual menace of what could happen, and what must therefore be averted at all costs, even at the cost of rewarding violence.

In this kind of terrorism, nothing actually has to happen. Even the threat of it causes a flurry of diplomatic concern, foaming at the mouth from the lobbyists, NGO negotiations and a beefed-up international community "presence." In the same way that America is held hostage to fear of terror, even with the unrealized threat of a terrorist act, the Balkan states are held hostage to respecting the rights and wishes of people who would in the West be better off as guests on talk shows.

In this light, the fact that Albanian separatist leaders have set up an NGO to "explore" the possibilities of how federalization can be achieved best shows the cynical logic of a region become inured to the travesty of simulated results. In no case have the many Albanian separatist movements ever deviated from their accepted methods; however, far from proving an essential rightness or uniformity of cause, these common methods show the inherent paucity of any real cause, and the prevalence of the imitative. Thus street protests, complaints about alleged poisonings and the like have been used ad nauseum since Tito's time, whereas the "human rights" and democracy bit has been slavishly followed since the Clinton years. Yet the separatists have failed to see that it is time for a new model to imitate, since no one actually believes in these rationales anymore.

This, perhaps, is their challenge: to find a new model (and fast) as the tide continues to turn against them in the West. Before the magic hour of opportunity ends, and the clock strikes midnight, the separatists have to achieve everything they want- or face never gaining it at all. It is a big challenge, but clearly these are the people best suited for it- after all, if the Balkans is moving backwards towards 1913 at the same rate they are moving forward from 1878, the meeting in the middle might have some dizzying results. The new century has barely begun; as for the old one, we are missing it already.



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Back to the Balkans - Calls for Renewed Intervention

Is the Balkans back in Washington vogue? After a couple of seemingly isolationist years (that were, of course, nothing of the sort) when the limelight was on the Middle East, there's been a renewed push by the forces of punditry to get the peninsula back on the Imperial agenda. Underneath dire warnings and venomous denunciations lies a hunger to revisit the scene of Clintonian triumphs as the Great Bush Adventure keeps foundering in the sand. Triumph of the Radicals in the recent Serbian parliamentary election may have provided the opportunity, but it is unlikely the renewed interest in the south-eastern corner of Europe is unrelated to the politics of the upcoming American election.

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ANTIWAR, Thursday, January 15, 2004

Balkan Express
by Nebojsa Malic
Antiwar.com


Is the Balkans back in Washington vogue? After a couple of seemingly isolationist years (that were, of course, nothing of the sort) when the limelight was on the Middle East, there's been a renewed push by the forces of punditry to get the peninsula back on the Imperial agenda.
Underneath dire warnings and venomous denunciations lies a hunger to revisit the scene of Clintonian triumphs as the Great Bush Adventure keeps foundering in the sand. Triumph of the Radicals in the recent Serbian parliamentary election may have provided the opportunity, but it is unlikely the renewed interest in the south-eastern corner of Europe is unrelated to the politics of the upcoming American election.

With Wesley Clark actually boasting about his "accomplishments" in Kosovo and inching ahead in polls, raising the Balkans issues could be a way to support his candidacy. If he were ever elected, Heaven forbid, chances are he would resurrect the policies of intervention in all their cruise-missile glory. On the other hand, if all the caterwauling manages to sway the Bush regime to get Clintonesque on the peninsula, the shills would still be happy. They care little as to who holds the reigns of power, long as he leads in their desired direction. Right now, it seems that direction is back to the Balkans.

The Two Rants: Abramowitz.

According to an op-ed by ICG's godfather Morton Abramowitz, which appeared in the Washington Post on Christmas Day (as celebrated in Serbia), America's alleged inactivity in the Balkans threatens to undo all the "successes" of the previous regime, and urgent action is needed.

Apparently, even though "much effort and treasure have been spent on trying to help produce decent, functioning states," the "stench of Slobodan Milosevic's rule still pervades Serbia" enough that a "rabid nationalist party led by an indicted war criminal" threatens to ruin everything the noble Americans and their European allies have wrought over the past decade.

Abramowitz also rants against the Serbia-Montenegro union and bemoans the fact that Kosovo was not given independence immediately after its forced detachment from Serbia. He blames those on American and European policy-makers, additionally making an absurd accusation that western governments "largely avoided putting conditions on their aid and coddled the democratic forces."

Say again? Granted, Abramowitz's pet regime in Podgorica may have been a recipient of unrestricted US largesse, but Serbia, Croatia and even Bosnia have known nothing but blackmail and extortion for years. Even Zoran Djindjic had complained bitterly about not receiving the promised 30 pieces of silver.

If it seems Abramowitz has an axe to grind, that's because he does. In addition to being one of the US-sponsored advisors to the KLA delegation in Rambouillet, he is also the founder of the International Crisis Group, which advocates a re-centralized Bosnia and independence for an Albanian Kosovo and a de-Serbified Montenegro.

And Silber

A near-identical call could be heard six days later, on the pages of The New York Times/International Herald Tribune, where Laura Silber, chief political advisor to George Soros' Open Society Institute, was adamant:

"America must act." Not only is Serbia in a "backslide," Kosovo is still not independent and Bosnia is not yet fully centralized. According to Silber, this is an inexcusable disaster, and must be remedied forthwith.

Not surprisingly, Silber's arguments echo Soros's own. They are also incoherent. Just as an example, she criticizes the Dayton Constitution as creating a Bosnia "hamstrung by layers of overlapping and contradictory constitutions, laws and administrations," but supports a proposal "reducing" the current thirteen governments to twelve!

Such an argument against the present arrangement's cost and efficiency does not hold water, for one simple reason. If efficiency were truly an issue, common sense would dictate that centralization should begin from the eleven governments of the Muslim-Croat Federation. But this is somehow never entertained seriously, and any consolidation of the Federation into two ethnic units is seen as "partition" instead. The real goal is to abolish the Serb Republic, which compared to the Federation runs remarkably smoothly, by dividing it into cantons or provinces - in effect, creating more inefficiency, only now easier to control from Sarajevo or Washington.

None of this should come as a surprise. Silber's claim to expertise stems from co-authoring "Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation," a hateful little pamphlet that blames all the Balkans ills on Slobodan Milosevic.

The Great Hunt

Meanwhile, in Bosnia itself, NATO's occupation forces launched another futile hunt for Radovan Karadzic, wartime president of the Serb Republic wanted by the Hague Inquisition on charges of "genocide." In cruel winter conditions, they raided the town of Pale for two days, ransacked private homes, churches and hospitals, held people hostage and eventually arrested one former police officer on vague suspicions.
Needless to say, they failed to find any trace of Karadzic, but declared yet another "success."

Armed raids by occupying forces can never be civil, but NATO seems to enjoy poking the Bosnian Serbs in the eye every chance it gets. In addition to Americans and Britons, this weekend's raid was conducted by German, Bulgarian and Italian troops - just like in the good old days of WW2. Their ancestors knew how to organize a proper hunt back then, complete with paratroopers and armored columns. Of course, they had failed just as badly.

Besides the desire to validate its Balkans interventions by capturing and putting on trial one of the men it has designated a villain, there are signs the Empire may also be seeing to "bag" Karadzic for the sake of appeasing the world Muslim opinion. However hard they may try, the endeavor is a waste of breath. It seems the prevalent Muslim opinion on Bosnia and the West is already well-established, and there is no room in it for acknowledging American intervention. Indeed, it is often denied entirely.

Nonetheless, voices claiming that Bosnia is an example of the US "helping Muslims" are still raised from time to time, and Washington's commitment to the Muslim vision of Bosnia remains constant. Such ongoing support of causes connected to the jihad seems to stem from belief that militant displays of Islam could be harnessed for Imperial purposes - a notion as dangerous as it is misguided. One thing is clear, at least:
Bosnia and Kosovo are proof that the "War on Terror" is both bogus, and a far cry from a "crusade."

Not Done Yet

There are few reasons for the Bush regime to listen to exhortations by Abramowitz and Silber. For whatever reason, the Balkans has not been the preferred foreign policy battlefield of the current US government.

Trying to make it into one now would offer too many potential pitfalls, and few discernible benefits, what with the former Yugoslavia being treacherous political grounds on the best of days. Also, it would look too much like a retreat from Babylon, and play neatly into the hands of Candidate Clark. Anything is possible, though.

Whatever the White House decides, one thing is a given: the Empire isn't done with the Balkans.

Not by a long shot.

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BALKANS: Millions of illegal guns threaten peace

The amnesty for surrendering illegal arms to the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR) saw only 155 small weapons handed over until last September. International organisations say there are more than 400,000 illegally held small arms around. Weapons have run in Kosovan families for generations. The perceived need to defend themselves from the Serbian army gave Kosovans more reason to hold on to their weapons and get new ones. Little can be done immediately to change the situation, Kosovan sociologist Blerim Latifi said at the round table meeting. "Pictures of armed people in schools around Kosovo, and posters and statues of former KLA fighters with weapons keep the gun culture alive."

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Inter Press Service (Uruguay)


Vesna Peric Zimonjic

The wars of the 1990s and centuries of tradition of holding personal weapons have left millions of illegally held guns around the Balkans.

BELGRADE, Jan 14 (IPS) - Several efforts to unearth these weapons including amnesty for weapon holders in Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo have failed.

Most weapons come from two sources, experts agree. The former Yugoslav army handed over hundreds of thousands of handguns and rifles to Serb civilians in former Yugoslavia since 1991. And they come from the looting of more than 1,300 army depots in Albania in 1997.

Hundreds of thousands of these weapons were smuggled later to other areas of the Balkans.

A round table meeting held in the Macedonian capital Skoplje last month sought fresh efforts to unearth these weapons. Government officials and members of several non-governmental organisations attended the meeting organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Several journalists from Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia also attended the meeting. The media can have a major role to play in convincing people that life without small arms can be safe, UNDP officials and NGO representatives said..

The presence of such arms "contributes to the atmosphere of insecurity and instability in an area that badly needs peace and development," the meeting declared.

The success in bringing these weapons to the surface has been modest at best, going by figures gathered by the UNDP-affiliated programme South- Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC).

Macedonia, a country of two million, has between 110,000 and 170,000 illegal guns, head of the national disarmament programme Blagoja Markovski told the meeting. In the first two weeks of the amnesty period (Nov. 1 to Dec. 15) only 389 pieces of small arms were handed over.

The arms date back to the short conflict after the 400,000 ethnic Albanian population asked for greater autonomy in 2001. International mediation settled the conflict.

The situation is worse in Kosovo, the southern Serbian province administered by the United Nations since June 1999 after the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombing of Serbia. The NATO campaign sought to end repression of the two million ethnic Albanian population ordered by then Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.

The amnesty for surrendering illegal arms to the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR) saw only 155 small weapons handed over until last September. International organisations say there are more than 400,000 illegally held small arms around.

Weapons have run in Kosovan families for generations. The perceived need to defend themselves from the Serbian army gave Kosovans more reason to hold on to their weapons and get new ones.

Little can be done immediately to change the situation, Kosovan sociologist Blerim Latifi said at the round table meeting. "Pictures of armed people in schools around Kosovo, and posters and statues of former KLA fighters with weapons keep the gun culture alive."

One of the first tasks of KFOR troops was to attempt to disarm the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the guerrilla group that had fought Milosevic's forces. But most weapons went into thousands of homes.

A recent survey by SEESAC shows that one in five students in Kosovo carries a gun to school.

Efforts to unearth illegal weapons in Serbia found more success. "Some 35,000 weapons and explosive devices, and about two million rounds of ammunition have been surrendered," assistant interior minister Sreten Lukic told media representatives.

The surrendered weapons included kalashnikovs, scorpions, uzis, submachine and machine guns, hand grenades, mines, rocket propelled grenades and launchers, and explosive devices.

Serbian authorities had called for the surrender of illegal small arms following the assassination of former prime minister Zoran Djindjic last March.

But greater public awareness of the threat posed by small arms is some success in itself, Alain Lapon from UNDP told the meeting in Skoplje.

"Now 80 percent of the population in the area of south Balkans is aware that presence of weapons is a threat to society, and 73 percent say the amnesty is a positive campaign," Lapon said. People need more time to learn of the benefits of arms-free life, he said.

"Simply destroying or removing the illegal small arms is not enough by itself," UNDP regional coordinator Francis O'Donnell told journalists in Belgrade last month. "Changing traditional values and promotion of security can be achieved only when people can live normally, doing their jobs and reviving the economy."

Security is a basis for overcoming poverty, he said. "So what we are trying to do here is to fight the poverty."

But economic improvement in areas bristling with small arms has been less than modest so far, like the campaigns to erase memories of danger.
(END/2004)
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Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily - Terrorism threats to Olympics and Balkans

GIS has gained significant additional intelligence from Muslim sources in Bosnia and elsewhere in the Balkans which highlights the ongoing nature of the threat, and points to a major planned terrorist attack against a US target in the near future, either in Sarajevo or Mostar, but most probably the latter. Specific new, firm intelligence on this and related matters appear in the latter part of this report.

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Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily
12 January 2004


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Special Report: Terrorism Threats to Olympics and Balkans Now in Public Arena; Probable Underlying Cause of Greek Prime Minister’s Resignation

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Special Report

Terrorism Threats to Olympics and Balkans Now in Public Arena; Probable Underlying Cause of Greek Prime Minister’s Resignation

Exclusive. By Gregory R. Copley, Editor, GIS. With input from GIS stations Athens and Sarajevo.1 A number of significant public statements by European and US officials have hesitatingly moved the debate about an impending wave of Islamist terrorism in the Balkans into the open political arena. The comments echo intelligence and analysis by GIS over the past year to the effect that a new round of terrorism, sponsored by both the al-Qaida-related groups and the Iranian clerics and their networks, was expected to occur in 2004 and would involve direct threats to the Olympic Games. However, the continued reluctance to admit the threat level, even at this stage, may further delay response to this threat until major attacks occur.

GIS has gained significant additional intelligence from Muslim sources in Bosnia and elsewhere in the Balkans which highlights the ongoing nature of the threat, and points to a major planned terrorist attack against a US target in the near future, either in Sarajevo or Mostar, but most probably the latter. Specific new, firm intelligence on this and related matters appear in the latter part of this report.

The statement by Greek Prime Minister Konstandinos Simitis that al-Qaida terrorist elements in Bosnia jeopardized the Summer 2004 Athens Olympic Games — immediately followed by the resignation of Prime Minister Simitis2 at the beginning of 2004, the year which should have been the pinnacle of his career — and the subsequent reluctant acknowledgement by US Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina Clifford Bond that there were “foreign elements” (presumably terrorists) causing concern in Bosnia have moved the debate about a new terrorist wave emanating from the Balkans into the public domain.

This admission is something which the Greek Government and some elements of the US Foreign Service had been strenuously trying to avoid, for different reasons. [Prime Minister Simitis’ statement also represents a massive failure not only for the Greek Government’s efforts to address the terrorist threat, but also a failure of the expensive consultants on security hired by the Greek Government.]

At the same time, the Bosnia-Herzegovina Interior Minister on January 9, 2004, indicated that a significant number of Bosnian Muslim youths were known to be away fighting for radical Islamist causes in Chechnya, Iraq and Afghanistan. Days earlier, a Muslim Bosnian mother said that her son, who had supposedly been in Turkey studying, had in fact been killed in fighting in Chechnya; he had been recruited after an initial payment of, reportedly, around US$20,000.

As well, it had been discovered that multi-barrel rocket-launchers and ammunition made in Bosnian Muslim factories had found their way to Iraq, where they had been used in action by Islamist guerillas, fighting against US forces.

What is significant in all of this is the fact that:

1. The EU-appointed High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina, Paddy Ashdown, and his US-appointed Deputy, Amb. Donald Hays, have refused to acknowledge the Bosnian links with Islamist terrorism, and Ashdown remains on record as saying that there were no terrorist links to Bosnia and that there would not be in the future;

2. Ashdown has not initiated any enquiry into the Bosnian Muslim’s supply of weapons which have been used to attack US forces, although he ordered and pressured a massive enquiry into past sales of aircraft spare parts by Bosnian Serb factories to the Iraqi Government before the US-led Coalition attack on Iraq earlier in 2003;

3. Ashdown continues to apply major pressure for the integration of Bosnian Serb intelligence operations — which have come under the Government of Republica Srpska, the Bosnian Serb republic within Bosnia-Herzegovina — into those run by the Bosnian Muslims in Sarajevo, in order to create a “national” capability, but also specifically to deny a regional intelligence capability to the Bosnian Serbs.

The Bosnian Muslims controlled by the late Alija Izetebegovic’s SDA party (Party of Democratic Action) have long infiltrated and controlled the Bosnian intelligence services, and it is regarded by Muslims, Serbs and Croats alike that the submersion of the Republica Srpska intelligence capability within the “national” body would destroy the archives and networks of Republica Srpska. The RS capability has been at the forefront of identifying the Islamist terrorist and mujahedin networks in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and has now become a central part in the “war on terror” given the growing build-up toward a major terrorist and insurgency offensive underway now in its region.

It is significant that when the shipment was discovered of aircraft parts from Republica Srpska factories to Iraq — before the US initiated hostilities against Iraq — the RS Government of Pres. Dragan Cavic went to major lengths to uncover all the details and to indict officials found to be responsible or negligent in the matter. The RS Government produced tens of thousands of pages of documentary evidence and displayed a significant transparency in following through on the matter. It nonetheless endured major criticism from Paddy Ashdown. No Iraqi aircraft were subsequently to see action, while, to the contrary, the Bosnian Muslim rocket launchers and ordnance have been used by guerilla forces specifically against US and Coalition forces in Iraq. Despite this, Ashdown refuses to comment on the matter or to launch an investigation.

He has also said that counter-terrorism was not a matter of concern for the Office of the High Representative (OHR), and that it was the responsibility of the “entities” (ie: the component states with Bosnia-Herzegovina: Republica Srpska and the Bosnia & Herzegovina (Muslim-Croat) Federation). Despite this statement, he has gone to great lengths, by attempting to force the end to the RS intelligence capability, to deny RS the capability to track terrorist-related activities and at the same time to help Bosnian Muslim radicals to cover up their involvement in supporting terrorist activities.

Ashdown entered the post of High Representative when he was removed as leader of the British Liberal Party, and took the opportunity to claim a life peerage (making him Lord Ashdown), but he also brought with him a history of considerable bias in favor of Muslim causes. His Deputy at the OHR, Amb. Hays, on the other hand, was a career US Foreign Service officer who owed his rise and career prospects to the Clinton Administration — and specifically to the then-US Representative to the UN, Richard Holbrooke — which had supported former Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic, who it is now known was actively engaged in supporting al-Qaida, which used Bosnian assets for the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US.

As GIS reported earlier, Hays in October 2003 escorted his former boss, Clinton Administration State Dept. official Richard Holbrooke, around Bosnia, introducing him as “the next US Secretary of State”, presumably when the Democratic Party took over from the present Republican Bush Administration. Holbrooke, with Clinton, had gone to great lengths to support Izetbegovic. Now, it appears, Amb. Hays’ motive for attempting to suppress the links between the SDA and al-Qaida and the Iranian clerical leaders was to avoid the embarrassment of having the Clinton Administration’s links with the 9/11 attackers brought to light in a US Presidential election year.

See Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily October 20, 2003: Bosnia’s Izetbegovic Dead, But US Diplomat, Ashdown in B-H Push Islamist Line to Support Holbrooke.

Significantly, the Clinton camp has thrown its weight behind Presidential candidate Gen. (rtd.) Wesley Clark, who was NATO Supreme Allied Commander in 1999 when Clinton ordered the attacks on Yugoslavia. Today, the major Albanian-American and Albanian supporters who heavily funded the two Clinton election bids have thrown their financial and political weight behind Clark, a fact noted prominently on the Clark election website.

So the pressures to suppress evidence of the growth of radical Islamist terrorist activities in Bosnia (and, indeed, in Serbia’s Kosovo province and the southern Serbia/northern Montenegro area known as Raška or Sandzak) have a significant and diverse base. However, given the growing isolation of the Iranian clerical leadership and the pressures on al-Qaida — coupled with the presence of a prime terrorist target in the Athens Summer Olympics — the matter can now no longer be hidden. At the same time, SDA leaders speaking at the funeral of Alija Izetbegovic in late 2003 noted that the continued existence of the Republica Srpska would no longer be tolerated, and the matter would be rectified. Ashdown was at the funeral, but did not respond to the comments.

See Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, October 24, 2003: Bosnian Islamist Leader, in Front of US Ambassador, Declares Intent to Change Dayton Accords, Destroy Republica Srpska.

GIS networks in the Balkans, Central Asia and the Middle East have been aware for some time of a number of specific plans involving a wide range of al-Qaida, as well as other radical Islamist groups to target the Olympics and at the same time mount simultaneous assaults aimed at promoting a variety of Islamist objectives, including the renewed assault on the Bosnian Serbs, moves for domination of southern Serbian/northern Montenegrin areas, Kosovo and the former Yugoslav state of Macedonia. Significantly, the attempt to create a Muslim belt from the Adriatic Sea up into the heart of Europe has been known for many decades by the Islamists as the “green transversal”, the green standing for the Muslim color (although, ironically, it is also the color of the Orthodox Christians), and transversal meaning a line or path on the ascendant.

The Bosnian Muslims, even during the Tito era, managed to inject the name onto sports stadium in Sarajevo, now the capital of Bosnia & Herzegovina. The Zetra Stadium specifically stands for ZElena (Green) TRAnsverszala, in Serbo-Croat.

The Mujahedin and Islamists in Bosnia

There have for more than a decade been three main radical Islamist mujahedin operating in Bosnia:

The Iranian mujahedin, consistently entirely of Iranian nationals. Their main function has been training, ideological projection and fundraising and financing. This group, which involves Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC: Pasdaran) has stayed away from direct involvement in actual combat operations, even, as much as possible, during the Bosnian civil war which ended in 1995.

The Arab mujahedin, consisting mainly of Arab volunteers, mainly (and spearheaded by) Saudi Arabian nationals, but also including Palestinians, Jordanians, Yemenis and Gulf Arabs. These forces have mainly been engaged in military training of volunteers, including Bosnian Muslims, but have also been engaged in military operations predominantly involving demolition work and diversion operations.

The North African mujahedin, mainly involving Egyptians, Algerians, Moroccans and the like. This group has by far the most direct military experience of the three mujahedin forces, and has been engaged in terrorist operations.

Significantly, the three main groupings of mujahedin are often competitive with each other, but cooperate extensively with each other as well, and also with the local Bosnian Muslim armed groups including the several-thousand strong Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) who are active through several main centers in Bosnia & Herzegovina. However, the camps of the three mujahedin groups in Bosnia are very separate from each other, and the members do not mix.

The headquarters of the Arab mujahedin in Bosnia changed recently when, in November 2003, moving from Zenica to Konjic, the new headquarters being approximately equidistant between Sarajevo and Mostar (each being about 50km away). Significantly, the Arab mujahedin has emerged as the most militant of the three foreign groups in Bosnia, although there appears to be strong evidence that the more experienced North Africans have been engaged in some of the more serious terrorist actions (including the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US).

Significantly, explosives — bomb components — from Bosnia were tracked leaving the country in the hands of three of the North African mujahedin, and went to Switzerland, where the individuals concerned noted their surveillance and moved into a predominantly Arab refugee area and caused a mob to attack the surveilling Swiss security officers. This enabled to mujahedin to escape. Chemical analysis of terrorist bomb blasts in Casablanca in 2003 showed that the components from Bosnia had been used.

Much of the funding for the mujahedin camps — but mostly for the Arab and North African operations — is funneled through Qatar, according to sources within the groups. Much of it is donated as genuine humanitarian funding, but is diverted so that the vast majority of it goes toward funding of mujahedin. All groups benefit from narcotics trafficking funds, with this traffic largely controlled in this area by Muslims of Bosnian or Serb background, or Albanians. Given that the source of most (if not all) the heroin coming through the pipeline is al-Qaida-related and originating in Afghanistan, and passing through the “business line” of the Albanian/Yugoslav Muslims, it is not surprising that a significant proportion of the revenues from this are also provided to either the mujahedin groups and Islamist groups in Bosnia and Kosovo.

There is a distinct division of labor in the narco-trafficking. The mujahedin groups never engage in commerce themselves, but provide the security and logistics of the narcotics pipeline from the time it reaches Albania and Kosovo through Raška and Bosnia and into Western Europe. Apart from the funding which goes to the mujahedin groups and other Islamist fighting groups in Kosovo, Raška, Macedonia and Bosnia, an extensive contribution is made toward buying influence among local non-Muslim politicians and other foreign officials.

Very well-placed Muslim sources said that the brother of one Federal cabinet minister in Serbia-Montenegro was based in the southern Serbian city of Novi Pazar (literally “New Bazaar”) and acted as the key business head for much of the narcotics traffic. These sources also said that other cabinet officials and lower level officials were also benefiting from pay-offs from the narcotics and prostitution rackets, which also provided the same lines of communications and logistics for the movement of terrorists and weapons.

The sources also said that as many as 40 US citizens, whom they described as “American officials” were also profiting from narcotics and white slave operations conducted by the Albanian and former Yugoslav Muslims. It has already been extensively documented that organized crime groups designated as “Albanian” dominate both the narcotics and prostitution trades in many Western European countries, including the UK. The knowledge that there were “Americans”, presumably of an official nature, actively engaged with some of the Islamist groups has made many of the Muslim sources wary of approaching US intelligence services with information. The sources said that they had provided some information in the past to US officials; some of the information had been acted on, but some had been totally disregarded, leading them to the conclusion that there were some “conflicts of interests”.

One source said that he had volunteered information on the locations of major arms storage facilities, in which Islamists had significant supplies of many types of weapons, including Stinger and SA-7 Strela SAMs, a wide range of anti-tank guided weapons (Soviet/Russian origin), and other systems. He said that the US intelligence official to which he volunteered the information had expressed no interest, despite being told that the weapons were also being sent to Islamist fighters in Iraq. He also said that he had details of the process and activities of Bosnian Muslim groups shipping fighters from Bosnia through Syria into Iraq “to fight Americans”, but even this information elicited no interest.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) in Bosnia in December 2003 lost its leader, Camil Višca, when he was arrested. His post has now been taken over by a mujahedin leader known only as “Aziz”.

With regard to the planning now underway for a major attack on a US asset at either Mostar or Sarajevo, the sources said that the attack would be undertaken “in response” to some major US action elsewhere in the world, so that it would appear as a spontaneous reaction to an alleged US “outrage”.

Considerable information of this nature, much of far more detailed and specific, was known to have been provided to US intelligence officials over the past year, and yet US officials in Bosnia, with the exception of the vague and tentative statement by Amb. Clifford Bond, have consistently either played down or denied that a terrorist threat existed in Bosnia. More significantly, Amb. Donald Hays, the US Deputy High Representative, has worked actively to suppress and intimidate the Government of Republica Srpska, threatening to arbitrarily dismiss various members of the Government, including the Prime Minister, unless they complied with his and Ashdown’s demands to fall into line with plans designed to support the radical Islamist SDA party which has continued to have strong ties with al-Qaida and the Iranian mujahedin.

Indeed, because of the constant exposure of the actions of Hays and Ashdown by GIS, the OHR has attempted to make enquiries in Washington to determine the extent to which GIS’ exposure might affect their freedom of action. The OHR has used its virtually unlimited powers, granted by the Dayton Accords, to interfere in all areas of governance in Bosnia Herzegovina, presumably largely on the basis that the White House and the European Union leadership have been too preoccupied with other issues to monitor these activities.

Footnote:

1. Copley wrote this report from the field, in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

2. Prime Minister Simitis was likely to be succeeded by his Foreign Minister, Georgios Papandreou, who would be faced with the task of bringing the Olympic Games to a successful conclusion. The Government of Prime Minister Simitis has been continually facing pressure from the international security committee states for the Olympics, including the US, Israel, Russia, Australia and the UK, to address the security of the Olympics. As GIS has reported, despite an unprecedented commitment of funds to Olympic security, the international committee remained (and remains) unsatisfied about Olympic security, and the Greek Government had failed to adequately address the broader scope of the threat, namely procuring adequate global intelligence of the threat from al-Qaida-related groups, supported by those elements controlled or influenced by the Iranian Government, and then to build an adequate counter-terrorism capability in alliance with neighboring and other foreign states’ services. The risk remains high and the prospect exists for the cancellation of the Games for security reasons. In any event, public concern about security was expected to play a part in the attendance levels, and therefore the viability, of the Olympics. See, particularly, the December 11, 2003, and October 15, 2003, reports by GIS.

See Also:

Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily recent reports:

July 7, 2003: Al-Qaida-linked Terrorist Operations Escalate in Bosnia as US, International Officials Turn a Blind Eye, highlighted terrorist links into the Islamist-dominated Bosnia-Herzegovina Government intelligence service, AID (Agencija za Istrazivanje i Dokumentaciju BiH: Agency for Documentation and Investigation).
September 17, 2003: Bosnian Official Links With Terrorism, Including 9/11, Become Increasingly Apparent as Clinton, Clark Attempt to Justify Support of Bosnian Militants.
September 19, 2003: Srebrenica Controversy Becomes Increasingly Politicized and Ethnically Divisive, Increasing Pressure on Peacekeepers.
September 22, 2003: Izetbegovic Now Believed Dead.
September 24, 2003: In Bosnia-Herzegovina: Who Leads the Radical Islamists After Izetbegovic?
October 7, 2003: Interview Highlights Changing Situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Terrorist Escalation.
October 9, 2003: Bosnian Sources Admit Izetbegovic Not Dead; Liaising With Clinton, Holbrooke.
October 15, 2003: Strong Warning Indicators for New Surge in European Islamist Terrorism.
October 20, 2003: Bosnia’s Izetbegovic Dead, But US Diplomat, Ashdown in B-H Push Islamist Line to Support Holbrooke.
October 21, 2003: ISSA Recognizes Republica Srpska President Dragan Cavic for Achievements “In the Face of Enormous Obstacles”.
October 23, 2003: Slovenia Arrests Key Kosovo Islamist, Based on Serbia-Montenegro Indictment.
October 24, 2003: Bosnian Islamist Leader, in Front of US Ambassador, Declares Intent to Change Dayton Accords, Destroy Republica Srpska.
December 1, 2003: Arrest of Yemeni al-Qaida Member, Turkish and European Terror-linked Individuals Highlights Growing Intelligence Momentum.
December 8, 2003: Alija Izetbegovic: A Retrospective Look at His Impact on Balkan Stability.
December 11, 2003: Greek Government Moves to Demonstrate Security in Advance of Olympics, But Remains Hampered by Turkish and Other Realities.

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