BOSNIA - 2008 COUNTRY REPORT ON TERRORISM

UNCLAS SARAJEVO 001883

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR S/CT RHONDA SHORE AND NCTC

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER ASEC BK
SUBJECT: BOSNIA - 2008 COUNTRY REPORT ON TERRORISM

REF: A.) STATE 124815 B.) STATE 120019



1. (U) Attached is the 2008 update to the Country Report on
Terrorism. Embassy Point of Contact for this report is
Deputy Political Counselor Michael Martin
(martinmb@state.gov).


2. (U)

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Despite ethnic polarization and disputes among Bosnian
political leaders that hindered the functioning of state
government, Bosnia and Herzegovina's law enforcement
organizations cooperated with the United States on
international counterterrorism issues. Bosnia remained a
weak, decentralized state with poor interagency communication
and competing security structures. Efforts by Republika
Srpska officials to undermine state-level institutions slowed
efforts to improve operational capabilities to combat
terrorism and terrorism finance. These factors, combined with
political interference in law enforcement, resulted in Bosnia
being vulnerable to exploitation as a potential staging
ground for terrorist operations in Europe.

The State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) is the
state-level Bosnian law enforcement agency with primary
responsibility for counterterrorism operations, but SIPA's
capacity is limited. The position of SIPA Director was
filled in December of 2007 after a vacancy that lasted almost
a year, and the leadership issue in that organization is
gradually being addressed. The head of the Ministry of
Security, parent organization to SIPA, continued to
politicize the Ministry's terrorism threat analysis and
counterterrorism operations. Consequently, Bosnian
capabilities and potential for independent action at the
state level did not improve as much as hoped. The
state-level intellgence service (OSA) provided excellent
cooperatin, and Bosnian authorities, including at the entit
level, were generally responsive to U.S. counteterrorism
cooperation requests.

Some of the fomer mujahedin fighters whose citizenship was
withdrawn by the Citizenship Review Commission (CRC) have
pursued appeals of these decisions that remain unresolved.
In the case of Abu Hamza al-Suri (Imad al-Husayn),the
Bosnian Constitutional Court issued a ruling that upheld
lower coQ decisions stripping him of his Bosnian
citizenship. The Constitutioal Court did, however, return
one portion of Hamza's appeal to the State Court to consider
whether deportation and possible resulting family separation
would violate his human rights. This case has not yet been
adjudicated by the court.

In March a group of five individuals led by Rijad Rustempasic
with alleged ties to Islamic extremism were arrested for
possession of arms and explosives. For reasons that still
remain unknown, charges against the defendants were dropped
in May and the defendants were released from custody.
Investigation of their case continues.

The Bosnian organization Aktivna Islamska Omladina (Active
Islamic Youth, or AIO) experienced fractures among its
leaders and is no longer an officially registered
organization in Bosnia. However some former members continue
to spread extremist doctrine. These former members maintain
links with extremists in Western Europe and the United States.

Bosnia successfully concluded its mission in Iraq in December
2008 with the redeployment to Bosnia of its Emergency
Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team and infantry platoon for fixed
site security. Through eight rotations to Iraq the EOD team
reduced the threat of unexploded ordnance and excess
ammunition. The Bosnian Armed Forces are preparing for the
deployment of 10 officers to augment Alliance military staffs
operating under NATO's International Security and Assistance
Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.


ENGLISH