Church Desecration Video Serves as Jihad Fund-Raiser

[Bonnie]

By Sherrie Gossett
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
August 11, 2005

(

CNSNews.com) - A violent video showing the desecration of a church and the murder of a Serbian soldier is one of many "jihad" videos currently making the rounds in Western countries to raise funds for Muslim terrorists, according to counter-terrorism experts interviewed by Cybercast News Service.

The graphic footage, stamped Sept. 16, 1995, was videotaped approximately two months before the Dayton Peace Accords, which brought an end to the civil war in Bosnia.

Darko Trifunovic, deputy director of the Center for Security and Investigation of Terrorism at the Belgrade Institute for Political Studies, provided Cybercast News Service with a copy of the video during his recent visit to Washington, D.C. Cybercast News Service has edited the video to remove portions dealing with the killing of the Serbian soldier and other grisly images of corpses.

Trifunovic, an attorney, previously served as first secretary in the Bosnia-Herzegovina Mission to the United Nations in New York City and conducted war crimes research for The Hague's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. In the latter capacity, Trifunovic interrogated mujahedeen who were involved in the fighting in Bosnia.

"The video was shot in western Bosnia," said Trifunovic. "It has been shown in Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden and North America for fund-raising purposes."

Evan F. Kohlmann, a Washington D.C.-based terrorism consultant and author, confirmed that videos of Bosnian battles and church desecrations were currently being circulated as inspiration and as a fund-raising tool for jihad-minded terrorists. Kohlmann has previously testified before Congress on terrorism issues.

The video opens with mujahedeen interrogating a Serbian soldier. The soldier was recognized by a relative as 32-year old Rade Rogic, said Trifunovic.

According to a translator consulted by Cybercast News Service, the lead captor asks Rogic, "Do you know who we are?"

"You're the mujahedeen," Rogic replies on the video.

"That's right, we're the mujahadeen." When questioned about his duties, Rogic insists he serves in the "workers' battalion" and only digs ditches. After repeatedly striking the soldier in the face, the interrogator then pressures him to say "Allah is great," before telling the videographer to turn off the camera.

Subsequent footage shows one of the mujahedeen armed with a machine gun and then preparing the weapon for what appears to be a planned execution. Rogic is then shown bloodied and lying face-down on some rocks, apparently having been killed by his captors.

In June of this year the Belgrade newspaper Vecernje Novosti identified Rogic as part of the Radnicki Battalion. The newspaper published a still photograph of his corpse and reported he was born in 1957 in Sanski Most. He apparently was captured after becoming lost in the surrounding forest.

The video footage also depicts mujahedeen forces entering an Orthodox Christian church. One combatant throws down what appears to be a vial of incense before others mock sacred items, break up the altar and vandalize Byzantine-style icons while smiling and singing. One combatant raises his rifle and fires at the cross atop the altar.

The scene is followed by images of an elderly civilian dead by the roadside and a tractor dragging the body of what appears to be a civilian through the village.

Knowledge of the video has spread among citizens in the Balkans, said Trifunovic. "Approximately 10,000 people have now viewed it at the Sava Center in Belgrade."

The popularity of videos like the one from western Bosnia can be traced to "The Martyrs of Bosnia," which told the story of Arab mujahedeen fighting in the civil war, said Kohlmann. "That first video is considered an al-Qaeda 'classic,'" he added. "Footage of the desecration of the church in Guca Gora was featured in the video." It also includes footage of al Qaeda leaders and a cousin of Osama bin Laden.

"The Martyrs of Bosnia" was distributed by Azzam Publications, whose London-based leader, Babar Ahmad, is currently facing extradition to the U.S. related to charges that he materially supported terrorism and conspired to kill persons in a foreign country.

When that tape was released, said Kohlmann, law enforcement wiretaps recorded Islamists praising the participants in the videotape, calling for the killing of Serbs and fighting for the honor of Islam. "It inspired many terror cells," said Kohlmann.

The "Martyrs of Bosnia" was followed by two other compilations: "Operation Black Lion" and "Operation Badr." The latter featured "suicidal" waves of mujahedeen rushing Serbian soldiers. "It terrified everybody who watched it," said Kohlmann.

Earlier this year, Dragomir Adnan, police chief for the Republic of Srpska (RS), showed the video of Rade Rogic's killing and the church desecration in western Bosnia to an undisclosed group of people. Subsequently, the European Union Police Mission sought to downplay the video by issuing a statement on June 22 criticizing Adnan for his role in the civil war and stating that the video footage had been in the Republic of Srpska Office for Cooperation with the Hague for "a few years and it's nothing new."

The Mission's press release stated that the RS had been asked to forward the video material to The Hague and that "the transfer is on course."

According to a June 15 BBC report, the Belgrade newspaper Vecernje Novosti stated that its journalists were able to view the footage, which was said to be of the 505th Buzim Brigade of the Bosnian government. According to the report, the video originally featured other footage before the scene involving Rogic. That footage, the Belgrade newspaper reported, allegedly showed "heaps of mutilated bodies" and "torched villages."

The BBC reported that the Vecernje Novosti concluded the tape was not fit for broadcasting.

In the same report, the BBC noted that the publication of the Belgrade newspaper occurred a week after Serbian television showed video of Serb paramilitaries executing Muslims in Srebrenica ten years ago.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=\SpecialReports\archive\200508\SPE20050811a.html

 

[CSM]

By Sherrie Gossett
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
August 11, 2005

(


http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=\SpecialReports\archive\200508\SPE20050811a.html

Yet these animals would have us in a tizzy about mishandling the Koran. Mosques are supposedly untouchable and inviolate.

Seems to me if we (the non Muslim citizens of the planet) were serious about the war on terrorism, mosques would be a prime target for investigation if not deliberate targeting.