Muhamed Sacirbey: "It is time to
leave those stories behind us"
SARAJEVO, April 27 (Reuters) — Bosnia's Ambassador to the U.N. lashed out at reports that his country's government still harbored foreign forces inside its borders who pose a terrorist threat, a Sarajevo daily said on Saturday. "It is time to leave those stories behind us," the daily Dnevni Avaz quoted U.N. Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey as saying. "It is time to say what is the real problem or shut up. This is the message to those governments that permit their diplomats to talk in this (anonymous) way."
Sacirbey referred to recent reports by the New York Times in which unnamed U.S. and Croatian officials identified five Bosnians recently arrested in Croatia as members of an Iranian-trained hit squad.
The Bosnian government has been under international pressure, especially from the United States, to evict all foreign forces from the country in accord with the terms of the Dayton peace agreement. A relatively small number of soldiers from across the Islamic world rallied to the defense of Bosnia during its 43- month war against separatist Serbs and Croats. Most have left the country but the United States and NATO are particularly concerned that some Iranians remain behind.
NATO forces raided what they described as a terrorist training camp in central Bosnia in February and closed it down. Three Iranian instructors were detained in the commando-style assault, as were a number of Bosnian "students" employed by the central government's shadowy Agency for Investigation and Documentation (AID).
Croatian officials report that the five Bosnians arrested in Croatia recently were AID employees, trained by Iran, on a mission to assassinate Fikret Abdic, a renegade Bosnian Muslim leader.
Senior Bosnian government officals, including Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, have insisted for some time that all foreign military units have been disbanded and that only men who married local women and gained citizenship remain. Top NATO commanders insist that some foreign forces remain in Bosnia in vilation of the Dayton agreement but they refuse to say how many or where, making it impossible to verify their claim.
NATO acknowledges that the forces are not perceived to pose any current threat to its peace implemetation force on the ground in Bosnia. But the United States' says hundreds of millions of dollars in training and equipment pledged to the Bosnian Army will not be made available unless and until American and international officials are satisfied all foreign forces have departed.
Apr 26 · Iranian Operatives Said Still in Bosnia
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