[ALBSA-Info] New Report: Bin Laden and the Balkans (ICG)

[Agron Alibali]

http://www.crisisweb.org/projects/showreport.cfm?reportid=481

Bin Laden and the Balkans: the Politics of Anti-Terrorism


The global focus on Islamist extremist-inspired terrorism resulting from 
the 11 September atrocities has raised the question of the potential for 
such terrorist activity in, or emanating from, the Balkans.
Given the presence of ex-mujahidin in Bosnia, the tens of thousands of 
former military and paramilitary fighters in Bosnia and Kosovo and 
Macedonia who are Muslims by nationality, if not for the most part by 
observance, and the large deployments of U.S. and other troops in the 
region, some (though by no means all) senior Western sources describe the 
potential terrorist threat as significant. In this context,  international 
officials and organisations in parts of the region, as well as certain 
governments, have taken extra security precautions, and clamped down on 
individuals and groups suspected of possible links to terrorist networks.
Although heightened security precautions are obviously appropriate at this 
time, it is important that the issue of Islamist extremism in the Balkans, 
and the risk of terrorism associated with it, not be painted as a larger 
problem than it is. While Osama  bin Laden himself may have visited Albania 
several years ago, and individuals with links to his organisation have 
passed through the Balkans, it appears that only Bosnia has significant 
numbers of potential Islamist extremists. Elsewhere the potential for 
Islamist-inspired violence seems  slight, and to hinge on the weakness of 
institutions rather than ideological sympathies with the enemies of the West.
>From this perspective, and in the absence of further evidence demanding a 
more robust response, the best way to prevent deadly violence in or 
emanating from the Balkans may simply be continued engagement by the 
international community across the spectrum of peacekeeping and peace 
building tasks.
There is no doubt that , in the Balkans as elsewhere, the new and 
overwhelming Western foreign policy priority has triggered some energetic 
attempts to borrow or co-opt the anti-terrorist agenda. Many politicians 
and propagandists in Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia have been given the 
opportunity to puff fresh air into stereotypes of fanatical bearded 
mujahidin, myths of Muslim ‘backwardness’, and theories about the 
‘civilisational’ abyss separating Islam from the West that served sinister 
purposes in the 1990s.
In this context, it is important that the international community should 
not be distracted by the wave of anti-Muslim opinion and propaganda that 
has washed through Serbia, Macedonia, and the Serb-controlled parts of 
Bosnia. In these countries, and also in Albania, Western capitals must 
reward governments’ overall democratic performance, not the volume of their 
denunciations of terrorism.    RECOMMENDATIONS
TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
1.      Closely monitor in Bosnia and Kosovo the activities of Islamist 
organisations which may have links to terrorist networks and which, if they 
entrench themselves, could present a permanent potential security threat.
2.      Follow through on Washington’s warning to ethnic Albanian leaders in 
Pristina on 15 October 2001 that “any provocative acts by armed Albanian 
groups would be seen as support for terrorism”.
3.      Examine carefully the allegations emanating from Serbia and Macedonia 
about continuing Albanian links to bin Laden, but in the absence of 
credible supporting evidence be prepared to publicly discount them.
4.      Do not be distracted by, or accept, the wave of anti-Muslim opinion and 
propaganda that has washed through Serbia, Macedonia, and the 
Serb-controlled parts of Bosnia.
5.      In the absence of specific evidence demanding a more robust response, 
recognise that the main Balkans dimension of the war on terrorism is the 
long term work of peace-building – institutional reform and development 
being the best way to close in the spaces where terrorist networks can 
potentially operate.
Belgrade/Podgorica/Pristina/Sarajevo/ Skopje/Tirana/Brussels, 9 November 2001






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