Claim Five Muslim Men, 1 Woman, Plotted
to Kill Renegade Bosnian Muslim Leader
ZAGREB, May 6 (Reuters) — Croatian authorities indicted six Muslims on Monday for plotting to kill a renegade Bosnian Muslim leader living in Croatia, state television reported. Five young men and one woman were arrested in early April near Senj on the Adriatic coast on suspicion of planning to commit an act of international terrorism by assassinating former rebel tycoon Fikret Abdic. Abdic, backed by separatist Bosnian Serbs, led a two-year rebellion in the Bihac pocket against the Sarajevo government.Croatian television said two of the indicted were members of the Bosnian state security service in Bihac in northwestern Bosnia. "The first five indicted are charged with planning to kill Fikret Abdic upon orders of Ejup Ikic, head of the public security department in Bihac," Drago Marincel, the Rijeka county prosecutor, said on the evening news. "(For the job), they should have been rewarded with 100,000 German marks and with business premises," Marincel said.
The Muslim-led Bosnian government earlier denied accusations that its state security services were involved in plans to assassinate Abdic. The television said the sixth suspect, a Muslim with Croatian citizenship living in the tourist resort of Crikvenica near Rijeka, was charged with being an accomplice in the crime. The other five were all Bosnian citizens from Bihac in their twenties.
Abdic, who rebelled against the Sarajevo government in 1993 and briefly reigned in half of the Bihac enclave, sided with both Serbs and Croats against his fellow-Muslims. His militia was overwhelmed by the Bosnian government army in summer 1995 when Croatian troops cut them off by storming the Serb-held Krajina region next door in Croatia. Abdic is believed to live in a villa near the Adriatic port Rijeka, where his former food concern Agrokomerc has premises.
About 20,000 of his followers found refuge in a camp in Croatia where they lived in appalling conditions until recently. Many of them have since been repatriated to the Bihac region where joint Turkish, Muslim and Croatian police forces are supposed to guarantee them safety from reprisals.
Croatian media reported earlier that the six were preparing to kill Abdic with a shoulder-launched missile while he was driving down the road between Rijeka and nearby Opatija. Croatian television said the accused, if found guilty, could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. Relations between Croatia and the Muslim-led Bosnian governng then a Bosnian federation grouping the two nations.
Apr 25 · Bosnia Launches Hit Squads to Execute War Criminals
Apr 16 · Renegade Muslim Leader Adbic in Bosnian Elections
Apr 11 · Croatia Indicts Six Bosnians in Murder Plot
Berserkistan is a world news service of Michael Linder Productions, Inc.
©1995-1996, All Rights Reserved
