Bosnia: Still A Problem?

[Annie]

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/26/wbos26.xml

US hunts Islamic militants in Bosnia
By Harry de Quetteville in Sarajevo
(Filed: 26/07/2004)


American military intelligence and the CIA have deployed hundreds of officers in Bosnia to track suspected Islamic militants amid concern that the country has become a refuge, recruiting ground and cash conduit for international terrorism.

Almost a decade after the end of the war in the former Yugoslavia, Bosnia has become a "one-stop shop" for Islamic militants heading from terrorist battlegrounds in Chechnya and Afghanistan to Iraq, according to European intelligence officials.

With five months to go before European Union peacekeepers take over from Nato troops in Bosnia, the United States is preparing for a huge cut in its military presence.

But local sources say that, while its soldiers will leave, about 300 intelligence personnel will monitor the activities of Muslim foreign fighters who settled peacefully in Bosnia after the end of the 1992-95 war. They are believed to be providing documents and weapons to active mujahedeen returning to the country after tours abroad.

 

[NATO AIR]

i talk to a bosnian girl (anzi) i went to school with in college... she tells me all the time about the progress made, especially between serbs and bosnians, but she always mentions the hardliners, who are nearly always "outsiders" or those fighters who share very fundamentalist tendencies that they learned from former islamic fighters.

these hardliners are the ones we should worry about, not only in bosnia but across europe.

 

[Annie]

i talk to a bosnian girl (anzi) i went to school with in college... she tells me all the time about the progress made, especially between serbs and bosnians, but she always mentions the hardliners, who are nearly always "outsiders" or those fighters who share very fundamentalist tendencies that they learned from former islamic fighters.

these hardliners are the ones we should worry about, not only in bosnia but across europe.

Well, my guess is if they wish to make points, they better damn well speak up. I got the feeling we will be out of there shortly.

 

[NATO AIR]

she says the hardliners (and i have read this in the economist and financial times and heard it on BBC) are the biggest prick in many people's sides, whether it is trying to organize secular activities, vote for secular candidates, recouncile with Serbs and Croats, etc etc

the most amazing thing though is the deference they give to the Americans (not the europeans though). the BOSNIAN fundamentalists well remember the generous military training retired US military personnel gave them, as well as the vast numbers of americans who demanded intervention to save the bosnians. one US soldier in the economist soldier was quoted "when we leave, i feel for the euros because they will be dealing with people who do not trust them in the slightest and don't like them either"

 

[Annie]

she says the hardliners (and i have read this in the economist and financial times and heard it on BBC) are the biggest prick in many people's sides, whether it is trying to organize secular activities, vote for secular candidates, recouncile with Serbs and Croats, etc etc

the most amazing thing though is the deference they give to the Americans (not the europeans though). the BOSNIAN fundamentalists well remember the generous military training retired US military personnel gave them, as well as the vast numbers of americans who demanded intervention to save the bosnians. one US soldier in the economist soldier was quoted "when we leave, i feel for the euros because they will be dealing with people who do not trust them in the slightest and don't like them either"

You are echoing what I've seen/read/heard. We are going to dump Bosnia on UN/EU both of which we know are useless, what will happen? US doesn't care, we thought EU should have dealt with in first place, but they didn't. We are going to bail.