Posted on 10/03/2001 2:07:47 PM PDT by Mel70
NATO Says 4 Were Seized Near Sarajevo, Suspected of Terror Activities
by Carlotta Gall
BELGRADE, Serbia,- Four people were detained last Tuesday and Wednesday in a Sarajevo suburb on suspicion of terrorist-related activity, a spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeeping force said today.
Two of them were detained at a hotel last Tuesday, and two more Wednesday in a raid on the offices of a charity, the Saudi High Commission for Relief, in joint operations by the Bosnian police and the peacekeepers.
The peacekeepers' spokesman, Capt. Daryl Morrell, declined to give details about those arrested, or say whether the authorities were acting on a request or information from the United States government in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on America.
The raid on the offices of the Saudi charity in the suburb of Ilidza outside the Bosnian capital yielded documents, computers and a large amount of cash, Captain Morrell said.
The relief organization does not appear on the list of groups whose assets were frozen last week by the Bush administration because of suspicion of their involvement in terrorism. It is one of numerous aid organizations set up to aid the large Muslim population in Bosnia after the 1992-95 war ended.
No weapons or ammunition were found during the search, the captain added.
Bosnian state television said on Sunday night that the two men detained at the relief organization were Bosnians. The other two men, who were arrested at a hotel in Ilidza, have been reported by the Bosnian media to be either from Saudi Arabia or from Egypt and Jordan.
A Bosnian weekly newspaper, Ljiljan, named them as Abd-Elhalima Khafagia from Egypt and Jehad Ahmad El-Jamala from Jordan. The men had traveled from Germany to meet with a Sarajevo publishing house about printing an edition of the Koran, the paper reported. Bosnian television reported the men were from Saudi Arabia but did not identify them.
Grateful for support during the war, the Bosnian authorities granted citizenship to hundreds of men from Islamic countries who fought in Bosnia as volunteers. The government has also readily issued visas to fellow Muslims, creating an easy route for illegal immigrants from the Middle East to Europe, a passage perhaps also exploited by terrorist networks.
The authorities in the Muslim- Croat federation that makes up half of Bosnia have worked since Sept. 11 to dispel any suspicion of offering haven to Islamic extremists. The police have made several arrests in the last week, deporting at least five Pakistanis, holding an unspecified number of people and searching for weapons and suspects in several areas, the interior minister, Muhamed Besic, said.
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