Algerians in Bosnia

[Al-khiyal]

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina: The government on Thursday ordered people recently stripped of Bosnian citizenship to leave the country immediately or face deportation.

Earlier this month, the government revoked the citizenship of more than 300 people, most of whom were naturalized during the 1992-95 Bosnian war and its immediate aftermath by officials bypassing official procedures.

"The decision is final and binding. With this all people whose citizenship was revoked become foreigners and must immediately leave the country voluntarily or their stay will be regarded as illegal," the Security Ministry said in a statement.

Bosnia was criticized after the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001 for granting citizenship to people who had links to international terrorism networks. The government responded by setting up a commission to review the cases of everyone who was naturalized since Bosnia became independent in 1992. The Commission makes recommendations to the government, which has the final say in whether to revoke citizenship.

The latest round of reviews revealed that procedures were ignored in a total of 367 cases of people from several countries, including Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Tunisia, Sudan and Russia. The commission did not say whether any of the people were suspected of involvement in terrorism.

During the Bosnian war, many fighters from other countries, often from the Middle East and north Africa, fought alongside Bosnian Muslims against Croats and Serbs. Most of the volunteers who stayed in Bosnia after the war married local women, and many now live in Islamic communities in remote rural areas.

Since the commission was set up, hundreds of people who were granted citizenship during or right after the 1992-95 war have had it revoked. The vast majority left the country, but some were deported.

Bosnia orders hundreds of people stripped of citizenship to leave the country

[Al-khiyal]

July 17, 2007 -- Bosnian authorities may withdraw Bosnian nationality from 75 Algerians; 11 of them are women and one is a high ranking officer in the Bosnian army. The list of these persons was published after a deadline determined by the Bosnian home affairs ministry had expired at the end of April, when the ministry announced that it had withdrawn Bosnian nationality from 53 Algerians out of 367 foreigners belonging to so-called Islamic volunteer fighters.

Several volunteers from Algeria, Syria, Jordan and Egypt were fighting against Serbian forces between 1992 and 1995. A war was declared by Serbia against Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Muslims, two years after the collapse of Yugoslavia.

The government determined a deadline of a month for the first number of foreigners to appeal against the nationality withdrawal decision.

The Bosnian ministry of domestic security confirmed that no Bosnian volunteer fighter was expelled so far, saying measures would be implemented according to the law.

Courts have not decided yet in the cases of the 53 remaining Algerians and the rest of the other Muslim foreigners involved in this issue, say Bosnian newspapers.

On the other hand, the ministry of domestic security continues to review the cases of other persons who obtained Bosnian passports as from 1992.

Bosnia to withdraw nationality from 75 Algerians

[Al-khiyal]

November 22, 2007 -- According to an official spokesman for the former Arab combattants who fought the then invading Serbian forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina, tens of Bosnian-Algerians have been stripped of their Bosnian nationality and handed over to the U.S. military on fake terror charges.

In an exclusive interview with Echorouk newspaper, the spokesman Abou Hamza Essouri revealed that these Algerians and their close relatives had been coercively stripped of all their possessions and ordered to leave Bosnia after strong leverage exerted by some European countries and the United States on the Sarajevo government.

He also said that these down-trodden Algerians were now leading a hand-to-mouth existence in the streets of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.

Their only means of subsistence, he explained, is the financial help extended to them heartily and unsparingly by the Muslim worshippers of the local mosques.

He added that they were being discriminated against by the Bosnian authorities glaringly and the Algerian diplomatic representation in Sarajevo has so far turned a deaf ear to their bona-fide grievances.

Several of these hapless Algerians, who have a twin Bosnian-Algerian nationality, were secretly deported by the US military from Sarajevo to Guantanamo Bay prison in 2002 on fake terror charges, he pointed out.

Destitute Algerian families live from hand to mouth in the streets of Bosnia

[Al-khiyal]

Vendredi 14 Décembre 2007 -- La Bosnie a indiqué vendredi avoir déporté vers l'Algérie, un ressortissant d'origine algérienne, Atau Mimun, récemment déchu de sa nationalité bosniaque et soupçonné de liens terroristes.

«Les informations recueillies par les agences de renseignements nous ont conduit à la conclusion qu'Atau Mimun représente un danger pour notre sécurité nationale et était enclin au crime», a déclaré le ministre adjoint à la Sécurité, Dragan Mektic. Il a ajouté que Mimun «avait des contacts avec certaines personnes qui pourraient être liées au terrorisme», sans fournir davantage de détails.

Mimun fait partie d'un groupe comptant des centaines de ressortissants étrangers, dont un grand nombre d'origine arabe, ayant été récemment déchus de leur nationalité bosniaque. Ils avaient combattu aux côtés des forces musulmanes bosniaques pendant la guerre intercommunautaire qui a ravagé la Bosnie de 1992-1995.

Aux termes de l'accord de paix de Dayton (Etats-Unis), qui a mis fin à la guerre, tous auraient dû quitter le pays, mais nombreux y sont restés en obtenant la nationalité bosniaque soit en raison de mérites militaires soit en se mariant avec des femmes bosniaques.

En 2002, six hommes d'origine arabe soupçonnés d'appartenir au réseau Al-Qaïda, ont été arrêtés en Bosnie et livrés aux Etats-Unis. En janvier 2007, la justice bosniaque a condamné à des peines allant jusqu'à 15 ans et quatre mois de prison un Suédois, un Danois d'origine turque et un Bosniaque accusés d'avoir projeté un attentat contre un pays européen engagé militairement en Irak et en Afghanistan.

La Bosnie déporte un Algérien soupçonné de liens terroristes

[Al-khiyal]

Sarajevo, December 14, 2007 - Authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina have expelled from the country an Algerian national whom they claim was a threat to national security, reports said Friday. Atau Mimun, 37, was according to the Banja Luka daily Nezavisne novine believed to involved in racketeering in Sarajevo and central Bosnia, although he was never tried for the alleged crimes.

"We estimated that that person was dangerous for the national security," Dragan Mektic, head of the government department responsible for foreigners in Bosnia, told the daily.

Algerian-born Mimun was granted Bosnian citizenship in 1994 after marrying a local woman. He was one of hundreds of people who were given citizenship during the country's 1992-1995 war.

Earlier this year Bosnia's government formed a special commission to investigate the circumstances under which the citizenships were granted, mostly to people from eastern Islamic countries, who had come to Bosnia to help Bosnian Muslims fight Bosnian Serbs and Croats.

The commission has so far decided to revoke citizenship from 613 people, suggesting deportation to their home countries.

Most were of Turkish origin, but also included are citizens of Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Russia.

The newcomers mostly decided to stay in Bosnia after the war, where they later married local women and started families.

The commission is to continue with its work until February next year, when its mandate ends.

Bosnia expels Algerian national over security fears

[Al-khiyal]

SARAJEVO, Bosnia Herzegovina, December 14, 2007 (AFP)--Bosnia said Friday it had deported an Algerian man suspected of terrorist links after stripping him of the country's citizenship.

"Information gathered by law enforcement agencies lead us to conclude that Atau Mimun was a danger to our national security and also inclined to crime," Deputy Security Minister Dragan Mektic told AFP.

Mektic said Mimun "had contacts with some people who can be linked to terrorism," but refused to provide further details.

Mimun was among hundreds of foreigners, including a number of former Muslim fighters in Bosnia's war, who were recently stripped of their citizenship due to irregularities. Mimun was the first of the group to have been deported from Bosnia.

Bosnia came under the spotlight after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S. due to the presence in the former Yugoslav republic of ex-fighters from Islamic countries. Hundreds of them joined the mainly Muslim army during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war. Although they were ordered to leave under the terms of the Dayton accords that ended the conflict, some stayed on after obtaining citizenship.

Six suspects of Arab origin linked to the Al-Qaida network were arrested in Bosnia and handed over to U.S. authorities in 2002.

Earlier this year, Bosnia jailed three Muslims found guilty of intending to carry out an attack in Bosnia or another European country with the aim of forcing the withdrawal of troops from Iraq or Afghanistan.

Bosnia deports its al-Qaeda citizen

[Al-khiyal]

Bosnia begins deportations

December 23, 2007 (ISA) -- Under intensifying pressure from the international community, Bosnian authorities on 16 December deported the first of nearly 600 naturalized Bosnian citizens from Islamic countries.

Since early 2006, the some 600 citizenships have been revoked; however, authorities have been slow to act on international orders to have those in question deported to their home countries.

Bosnian Deputy Security Minister Dragan Mektic said authorities on 16 December deported 37-year-old Algerian Atau Mimun to his native country. Mektic told western media outlets that Mimun’s citizenship had been revoked after evidence that the Algerian had contacts with some figures linked to terrorism. He offered no further details.

“Information gathered by law enforcement agencies led us to conclude that Atau Mimun was a danger to our national security and also inclined to crime," Mektic told AFP.

Mimun gained Bosnian citizenship in 1994 after marrying a Bosnian woman from the central town of Tesanj - an area where most of foreign fighters who arrived in Bosnia to fight against Bosnian Serb forces relocated after the 1992-1995 war. Mimun arrived in Bosnia in 1992 from Pakistan, accompanied by another Algerian citizen, Abdulkadir Brahmi. According to Bosnian media reports, both served as trainers for mujahideen fighters in camps located in the Pakistan-Afghan border area.

According to information from the Bosnian government, after his citizenship was revoked earlier this year, Mimun disappeared for some time, but was eventually located in a home in Tesanj where a local man - said to be a member of the radical Wahhabi movement - had provided him with shelter from the authorities.

Mektic said that several months ago Mimun had attempted to use legal measures to extend his stay in Bosnia, including seeking asylum or a temporary reprieve to remain with his family in the country. These means were unsuccessful, however. Though government officials said Mimun had no prior convictions, local media claimed he was involved in racketeering in central Bosnian and the capital, Sarajevo.

Since the September 2001 attacks on the US, Washington has stepped up pressure on Bosnian authorities to revoke the citizenships of and expel up to 1,500 Muslim men who arrived during the war from the Middle East and North Africa to fight against Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats.

Indeed, Bosnian authorities did investigate and close down a dozen Islamic aid agencies, arresting several people suspected of links to extremist groups.

In February 2006, the government formed the citizenship revision commission, and to date has revoked some 600 citizenships, recommending deportation.

Their citizenships have been revoked on the grounds of giving false personal information, such as dates and places of birth, in their citizenship applications. For some of them it was proved that they had connections with Islamic militant groups that are still active, though ostensibly not in Bosnia.

Since 2001, dozens of Bosnian passport bearers believed to have close ties with Islamic militant groups were arrested elsewhere in the world, particularly in the Middle East and South Asia. Indeed, Bosnian authorities do not know the whereabouts of the majority of the 600 slated for deportation.

All naturalized Bosnian citizens were given until mid-2006 to provide all the documents they used to gain Bosnian citizenship, but only a few dozen showed up. As such, the authorities only have the addresses listed on the citizenship applications, which are up to 10 years old.

Out of an estimated 6,000 Arab volunteers who arrived during the early stages of the war, the Bosnian Foreign Ministry estimates that around 1,000 remained in the country as naturalized Bosnians. Many received new passports under new often Bosnian names, making their previous records difficult to trace.

Revision commission officials told ISA Consulting that they were facing difficulties, since most of the cases lack the proper documentation – cases in which citizenships were granted in Bosnian embassies throughout the world. In some instances, the proper stamps and signatures are lacking.....