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Post by TsarSamuil on Oct 2, 2016 14:55:54 GMT -5
Bosnian niqab-wearing politician seeks office to ‘reduce prejudice’ & help poor.
RT.com
1 Oct, 2016 09:34
A niqab-wearing politician in Bosnia seeks to become the first fully veiled woman in the Balkan country to run for public office. If elected, Indira Sinanovic says she wants to help the poor and “break down prejudice” experienced by those wearing niqabs.
The 37-year-old mother of two is running in her hometown of Zavidovici, which is about 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of the capital Sarajevo. She wears the niqab, which is a veil worn by Muslim women that covers the whole face, except the eyes.
Speaking ahead of the election on Sunday, she said that she wants to help “socially vulnerable families” as she has become aware of their problems after carrying out humanitarian work. She also says that she wants to stop discrimination against women who wear the veil.
“I will try to break down discrimination and the distorted image of women who wear the hijab. People need to have the chance to meet us and to get to know who we are. My experience shows that, after knowing us, people always say they are sorry for having prejudices and for perceiving us as something we are not. We are ordinary citizens,” she said, as cited by RT’s video agency Ruptly.
Sinanovic, who aside from her humanitarian work is employed as a journalist, believes that if she is elected, she will have the opportunity to meet more people, while also being able to help people “know more about us.”
Bosnia, which has a large indigenous Muslim population, due to having once been part of the Ottoman Empire, has no laws against members of the public wearing the niqab or the burqa. Sinanovic, however, says she is alarmed by a recent ruling that says court officials are no longer allowed to wear headscarves.
“It’s the basic right of every citizen,” she said, adding that she has suffered from discrimination in the past and has been called names on the street such as ‘ninja’ or ‘terrorist,’ and has been told, ‘go to Afghanistan’ or ‘go to Syria.’
Although Islam has been traditionally liberal in Bosnia, which is an ethnic mix of Orthodox Christians, Catholics, and Muslims, there has been a rise in radical Islam which partly stems from the influence of Saudi-sponsored mosques, which began to appear following the Bosnian War in the 1990s.
In November, two Bosnian soldiers were killed and three civilians injured in an attack by a radical Sunni Muslim extremist who shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great in Arabic) before killing his victims. The attack took place on the outskirts of Sarajevo.
Sinanovic is fighting a rising tide of opposition to the niqab and burqa in Europe. On Friday, the Bulgarian parliament passed legislation which effectively bans burqas in public places. The measure was introduced to step up security in the country following a series of terrorist attacks in Europe.
These who fail to comply will face fines of up to 1,500 leva (approx. $860) and be stripped of social privileges. Muslims make up around 12 percent of the population of Bulgaria.
“The law is not directed against religious communities and is not repressive,” senior lawmaker of the ruling center-right GERB party Krasimir Velchev insisted, according to Reuters. “We made a very good law for the safety of our children,” he added.
Days earlier, the Swiss parliament approved a draft bill aiming for a nationwide burqa ban, initiated by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP). “No person shall cover [his/her] face in public and in places accessed by the public (exempt for holy places),” the statement of the initiative reads.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Feb 5, 2017 8:06:24 GMT -5
Why Bosnia May Become 'Ideal Refuge of Last Resort' For Daesh.
Sputnik
EUROPE 10:12 03.02.2017
If Russia and the United States join their counterterrorism efforts and launch a comprehensive large-scale operation to tackle Daesh in the Middle East, the militants will most likely flee to the Balkans, primarily Bosnia and Herzegovina, experts told Sputnik Serbia.
Bosnia will become an "ideal refuge of last resort" for terrorists fleeing Iraq and Syria due to the existing infrastructure, an expert on terrorism Djevad Galijasevic asserted.
"Islamist infrastructure has been around in Bosnia for the last three decades. There are no obstacles preventing it from developing. Propaganda of [radical ideas] and financial assistance [to extremists] have continued unabated. One can buy any weapon in Bosnia. Some terrorists have their own banks," he detailed.
Milan Pasanski, president of the Forum for the Study of International Terrorism, shared these sentiments, saying that militants will most likely refrain from crossing the borders of the European Union since EU law enforcement and counterterrorism services have been on high alert. They will instead settle in the European periphery, primarily Kosovo, the Serbian region of Sandžak and Bosnia, he suggested.
The latest developments in Austria appear to confirm Pasanski's assessment.
Last week, imam Nedžad Balkan was arrested in the Austrian capital of Vienna. Galijasevic described him as the most radical, but not the most dangerous Islamic fundamentalist of Bosnian origin.
"Balkan is considered to be an expert in interpreting Islamic religious texts, particularly those on prophet Ibrahim. Balkan founded the İbrahim Milleti project. Several years ago the German police conducted a large-scale operation arresting Wahhabis affiliated with the project," the analyst said. "He is the most radical Islamist with ties to Bosnia and Herzegovina in Vienna, but he is not the most dangerous one. In this respect, hafiz Muhamed Fadil Porča, who represents the Dawa Salafia union, is more dangerous."
The analyst added that Nedžad Balkan is active beyond Vienna, conducting operations in the Austrian cities of Linz, Klagenfurt and Graz. He was also active in other countries, most notably Switzerland and Germany.
"By detaining Nedžad Balkan Austrian authorities have indicated that if a second wave of refugees comes, they will not turn the blind eye on the fact that terrorists could be among them. It's common knowledge that Vienna has become a place where Islamic fundamentalists, with some coming from Bosnia, gather," Pasanski said.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Feb 24, 2017 15:31:49 GMT -5
Bosnian Muslims appeal UN top court's ruling which cleared Serbia of 1990s 'genocide'
RT.com
24 Feb, 2017 11:00
The Muslim-Bosniak member of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s tripartite presidency is appealing the decision that cleared Serbia of genocide charges during the 1992-95 civil war. He has launched a case with the Hague-based International Court of Justice.
Member of the presidency Bakir Izetbegovic is seeking to reverse the UN’s decision, telling journalists in Sarajevo on Thursday that “the request is being submitted at this very moment,” according to Reuters.
“I think that I am on the path of truth and justice,” he added.
The appeal is being launched just before the 10-year deadline for such a request expires on February 26.
Bosnia has three major ethnic groups – Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), Croats, and Serbs – and is governed by a respective tripartite presidency.
It initially filed the charges against Serbia in 1993, accusing Belgrade of masterminding a program of widespread “ethnic cleansing” during the war that split Yugoslavia and claimed more than 100,000 lives. However, the case was dismissed and only one charge of failing to prevent genocide was leveled in 2007 – that which relates to the Srebrenica incident of 1995, when Serb forces had captured the eastern town and executed 8,000 Muslim men.
Srebrenica was pronounced Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II, but has been a topic of much contention for the split former Yugoslavs and the world. To this day, not everyone is in agreement over what led to the incident, or which outside political forces – aside from Belgrade – played a role.
Serbs did not take the news of the appeal too well – both in Belgrade and in Banja Luka, the seat of the Republika Srpska government in Bosnia. They fear that a new crisis could be brewing if the ICJ’s decision were to be reversed, and that, at the very least, the decision should have been the result of a consultation between all three parts of the presidency – which also includes the Bosnian Croats.
“I am afraid that we have entered a really serious crisis,” the Bosnian Serb leader of the presidency, Mladen Ivanic, later told a press conference.
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic referred to Izetbegovic’s decision as “bad” for relations between the two countries.
At the national parliament, Serb lawmakers had earlier indicated they may boycott the institution until the ICJ emerges with its verdict.
However, according to AFP, Izetbegovic says he is ready with “new arguments” in the case, relating particularly to Serb General Ratko Mladic, who is currently on trial at the ICC in the Hague.
The ambassadors from countries involved in the implementation of Bosnia’s peace agreement met Thursday in the capital, Sarajevo to discuss how to proceed.
Bosnia has been independent since 1995, after the war ended. Although it is one country, it is administered internationally, and its Serb and Croat government entities enjoy a degree of semi-independence, while the Muslim seat in Sarajevo does not hold much power. Political clashes often occur in the former Yugoslav country.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Apr 19, 2017 13:02:22 GMT -5
In Ottoman Traditions? Why Muslims in Serbia, Bosnia Hail Erdogan's Victory. Sputnik POLITICS 12:59 19.04.2017 Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan's declaration of victory in Sunday's constitutional referendum to expand his presidential authority has been hailed by the Muslim communities in Serbia and neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina. Political analysts and diplomats explained to Sputnik Serbia what they now expect from the Turkish leader. On Sunday, President Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in a referendum to replace Turkey's parliamentary system with an all-powerful presidency and abolish the office of prime minister. His victory has been hailed in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia. The Turkish leader was congratulated by Bosnian politician Bakir Izetbegović, the Bosniak member of the tripartite Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and President of the Party of Democratic Action. The results of the vote have been also hailed by Sulejman Ugljanin, the first and current president of the Bosniac National Council, a representative body of the Bosniak national minority in Serbia, who said that "any Erdogan's success is the success of Bosniaks of Sandžak" (Serbia's region, former Ottoman administrative district). Sputnik Serbia discussed the issue with Serbian-American political analyst Srdja Trifkovic, who explained that since the very start of his political career, Erdogan has been supporting those in the Balkans whom he considered continuators of the so-called "Ottoman tradition." It is also worth reminding that the Turkish leader earlier claimed that Bosnian politician Alija Izetbegović, the first President of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who died in 2003, once said that he had "left Bosnia to Erdogan to take care of." "The Muslims in Serbia and Bosnia do have reasons to welcome Erdogan's victory. They hope that after the referendum he will be more active in pursuing Turkish ambitions in the Balkans. I also think this will be the case as Erdogan is no longer bound with any obligations to the EU and the US. Their relations have soured after the failed coup attempt," the political analyst said. He also suggested that there might be continuation of what is being called a "NeoOttoman strategy of Ankara", which is being pursued in three directions: Caucasian, Middle Eastern and the Balkan. "We should also expect greetings coming from Kosovo, Albania and western Macedonia. There is no doubt that Erdogan considers the Albanians his key allies and partners in strengthening Turkish strategic presence in the region," Trifkovic concluded. Former Serbian diplomat Srecko Djukic however has a different point of view. He told Sputnik Serbia that Erdogan will most likely deal with his national issues first. "I think we should wait and see whether Turkey will have enough power to get closer with the Balkan countries. Turkey is likely to face lots of challenges as its economic situation is different now. And I don't think that Ankara will expand its presence in the Balkans in the nearest future," he suggested. |
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Post by TsarSamuil on Aug 19, 2017 4:41:03 GMT -5
Bosnia: Cradle of modern jihadism? BBC News.
BBC News
Jul 4, 2015
20 years ago in the civil war in Bosnia, hundreds of Arab jihadists came to join Bosnian Muslims fighting against their neighbours the Serbs and Croats. Grouped into secret fighting units in Central Bosnia, this was the first time in centuries Jihad had been fought against a Western, Christian enemy. Two decades later Bosnia is still reaping the consequences. In the past month ISIS declared the Balkans the next front of Jihad - and in remote mountain villages extremists are flying the ISIS flag. Mark Urban returns to Bosnia and discovers how secular Bosnian society has been infiltrated by a militant Islamism which operates to this day.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Oct 10, 2017 13:59:27 GMT -5
Bosnia and Herzegovina: 'Not guilty' - Naser Oric acquitted of 1992 war crimes.
Ruptly TV
Oct 9, 2017
Srebrenica defender and former Bosnian Muslim commander Naser Oric was acquitted of war crimes in by a court in Sarajevo on Monday, after being charged with deaths of three Bosnian-Serbian soldiers in 1992.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Nov 22, 2017 13:44:51 GMT -5
Mladic trial is drawn out, aimed to demonize him & Serbs – analyst.
RT
Nov 22, 2017
The former Bosnian Serb military leader, Ratco Mladic, has been sentenced to life in prison by the UN tribunal in the Hague.
The 74-year-old was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity during the Bosnian War in the 1990s. Up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were slaughtered by forces under the general’s control.
RT talked to political analyst John Bosnitch.
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‘It is NATO court!’ Former Bosnian Serb commander Mladic slams UN court that gave him life sentence.
RT.com
22 Nov, 2017 10:54
A United Nations tribunal has convicted General Ratko Mladic on 10 out of 11 counts of crimes he was accused of committing during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. Critics of the prosecution of crimes during the violent collapse of Yugoslavia question its fairness.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) handed down its verdict on Wednesday. The justices found Mladic guilty on most of the allegations dating back to the 1992-1995 war, including the massacre of Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica. Mladic pleaded not guilty on all charges.
Presiding Judge Alphons Orie said the court found that Mladic’s actions during the war were “among the most heinous known to humankind” and amounted to genocide. The court sentenced the Serb to life in prison.
Mladic heard the verdict from a separate room, having been ousted by bailiffs after an outburst of criticism against the judges. The former general said in the courtroom that everything the judges said was a lie, the general’s son, Darko, told TASS. According to Darko, his father said: “This is all lies, this is a NATO court!”
The tirade came in response to the court’s rejection of a request by Mladic’s lawyer to postpone the hearings due to the defendant’s high blood pressure. Darko added that he was not surprised by the ruling, saying: “The court was totally biased from the start.”
The conviction is likely to fuel resentment in Serbia that the international prosecution of crimes committed during the Balkan Wars was one-sided and failed to bring justice to victims of Albanians and Croats. Of the 161 individuals indicted by the ICTY, the body created specifically to prosecute wartime crimes, 94 are ethnic Serbs, compared to 29 Croats, nine Albanians and nine Bosniaks.
Only a handful of Serbs, including politician Milan Milutinovic, General Momcilo Perisic and Yugoslav army captain Miroslav Radic were acquitted by the tribunal, compared to well over a dozen defendants of other nationalities. The tribunal insists the statistics reflect the actual crimes committed during the hostilities.
The case of Mladic, 74, was the last for the ICTY to pass a verdict on. Among the crimes he was found guilty of were the killings of an estimated 8,000 Muslim males in the UN-designated safe zone in Srebrenica and the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, during which over 11,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed. Mladic’s defense team said it would appeal the verdict, with his case joining some two dozen others pending new rulings.
Belgrade and Moscow have on various occasions criticized the tribunal for a perceived anti-Serb bias. In 2015, Russia used its UN veto right to block a resolution on the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica tragedy, saying that the draft document depicted the Serbian people as the sole guilty party in the complex armed conflict in Yugoslavia.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Dec 1, 2017 0:12:46 GMT -5
Convicted Bosnian Croat ex-general dies after 'drinking poison' at Hague tribunal (VIDEO)
RT.com
29 Nov, 2017 11:16
A former Bosnian Croat general has died after apparently taking poison during the reading of his verdict at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Croatia's prime minister has confirmed.
Slobodan Praljak, 72, a former wartime leader, was seen drinking from a small container as he heard the verdict of his appeal hearing. The man’s defense lawyer then told the court that the accused had “taken poison.” The presiding judge stopped the proceedings and ordered a doctor to be called, Reuters reports.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic confirmed Praljack's death in a press conference Wednesday, adding that "we have all unfortunately witnessed his act by which he took his own life."
A UN judge who later called the site a "crime scene" said that Dutch police are investigating the incident.
Prior to drinking the substance, Praljak had heard that his 20-year sentence for alleged war crimes in the Bosnian city of Mostar was being upheld. Praljak, who was one of six former Bosnian Croats having their appeal heard at the UN tribunal, is reported to have told the judge that he is not “a war criminal.”
He was accused of ordering the destruction of Mostar’s 16th-century bridge in November 1993, an act that, judges said, “caused disproportionate damage to the Muslim civilian population.” All of Praljak’s fellow defendants were convicted in 2013 of the persecution and murder of Muslims during the Bosnian war.
A live broadcast from inside the court was cut off shortly after Praljak’s pronouncement. Reports suggest the judge asked that Praljak’s glass be preserved as evidence.
A court spokesperson told the media on Wednesday that Praljak was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died.
Last week, the same tribunal handed former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic a life sentence on 10 charges over his role in the Balkan Wars in the 1990s, including genocide. He had pleaded not guilty on all counts.
Questions have been raised over the fairness of the international prosecution of crimes committed during the Balkan Wars. Of the 161 individuals indicted by the ICTY, the body created specifically to prosecute wartime crimes, 94 are ethnic Serbs, compared to 29 Croats, nine Albanians and nine Bosniaks.
Two years ago, Russia used its UN veto right to block a resolution on the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica tragedy, saying that the draft document depicted the Serbian people as the sole guilty party in the complex armed conflict in Yugoslavia.
In 2006, former Serb president and president of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic was found dead in his cell at The Hague detention center. His death came just one month after the tribunal had rejected a request by Milosevic to obtain medical treatment in Russia. According to pathologists, the cause of death was a heart attack.
Meanwhile, the former head of Slobodan Milosevic’s defence team, Serbian lawyer Toma Fila, said it was “absolutely possible” to bring poison into the court in the Hague.
Fila told AP that security was like an airport. “They inspect metal objects, like belts, metal money, shoes, and take away mobile phones,'' he said, adding that pills and small amounts of liquid would not be noticed.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Jan 28, 2018 7:25:15 GMT -5
'Govt downplays Islamist threat in the Balkans' - German Left Party.
RT
Jan 28, 2018
The German media has revealed a growing concern in Berlin, over the increasing number of Islamic extremists in south-eastern Europe. Those claims were based on classified documents obtained from Germany's Left Party. Our Europe correspondent Peter Oliver has the story.
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Post by TsarSamuil on May 3, 2018 12:13:27 GMT -5
Arrest of Muslim general on war crimes reopens Bosnia war wounds.
RT.com
27 Apr, 2018 21:51
Bosnian authorities have arrested a dozen wartime Bosnian Muslim officers on war crimes charges, including General Atif Dudakovic. While Muslim politicians are outraged, Serbs see the arrests as too little, too late.
Dudakovic, 64, commanded the 5th Corps of the Bosnian Muslim Army in the Bihac enclave during the 1992-95 Bosnian War. His troops fought against the Bosnian Serbs as well as a Bosnian Muslim faction that sought autonomy from the government in Sarajevo. Most Bosnian Muslims consider him a hero for defeating the autonomists.
He and 11 others were arrested on Friday morning and are now facing charges of war crimes against civilians and crimes against humanity.
The charges are related to the deaths of “several hundred Bosnian Serb civilians and prisoners of war in 1995, as well as war crimes against [Bosnian Muslim] civilians loyal to Western Bosnia autonomy in 1994,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Dudakovic and other generals are “synonymous with the honorable and heroic defense of Bosnia and their innocence will surely be proven,” said the country’s prime minister, Denis Zvizdic.
Bakir Izetbegovic, the Bosnian Muslim member of the country’s tripartite presidency, called the arrests an “unnecessary humiliation” for people who have cooperated with investigators over the years-long probe.
President of the Bosnian Serb Republic, Milorad Dodik, said the lengthy investigation is part of the problem.
“Had this arrest taken place right after the public was shown recordings where it can clearly be seen how Dudakovic is giving orders for the crimes, I would believe in the good intentions of the judiciary of Bosnia,” he said. “As it is, I think that the arrest came too late.”
Dodik, the then-prime minister of the Serb Republic, was one of the officials who referred Dudakovic for war crimes charges over a decade ago, after a recording emerged showing the general ordering his subordinates to “execute on the spot” two prisoners they had taken, and commending the men who carried out the task.
(GRAPHIC VIDEO)
A peace agreement negotiated at a US airbase near Dayton, Ohio, ended the war by partitioning Bosnia between the Serb Republic and the Croat-Muslim Federation. Dudakovic is proud of his role in the war and apparently thinks there is still unfinished business to attend to.
“Today’s generation says the war is not over, only the shooting stopped,” the general reportedly said in May 2017, at a gathering of Bosnian Muslim veterans in Konjic.
Earlier that year, in a speech in Luxembourg, he offered to “personally network those willing to resist greater-Serbian aggression” and that every Bosnian Muslim over the age of 17 ought to prepare by purchasing a uniform, boots, backpack and a sleeping bag, according to the Belgrade daily Novosti.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2018 1:55:22 GMT -5
Brother against brother... the whole Balkan situation saddens me. The legacy of the Turk and Islam in the region has created a divide so deep that I have no idea if it will ever be healed. Eradicating the influence of Islam in Bosnia would be a good start, but I doubt that could ever occur...
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Post by TsarSamuil on May 6, 2018 10:49:59 GMT -5
Well, the EU is falling apart and I suspect NATO as well. We'll see what new blocks n alliances we will have.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Mar 16, 2019 2:31:05 GMT -5
Croatian PM Reiterates That Bosnia Security Minister's Claims Are Nonsense.
By HINA, 15 Mar 2019, 13:59
ZAGREB, March 15, 2019 - Croatian PM Andrej Plenković reiterated on Friday that Bosnian Security Minister Dragan Mektić's accusations, that Croatian intelligence agents had been part of a covert operation aimed at showing that armed group of radical Islamists were active in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), were "nonsense" and "manipulation".
Mektić made the accusations on Wednesday, saying the operation was intended to justify Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović's earlier claims that thousands of Islamic extremists in BiH pose a threat to regional security.
Mektić’s statements, "aside from the words 'nonsense', 'manipulation' and 'ill-intentioned claim', deserve no other additional or further comment," Plenković said at a cabinet meeting. "Croatia is a member of NATO and the European Union, a country which, together with other partners, is engaged in the fight against terrorism and, in that respect, will continue to cooperate with all the countries in its neighbourhood, including BiH, in a responsible manner," he added.
Bosnian Security Minister Dragan Mektić gave a statement to the State Prosecutor's Office on Friday as part of an investigation into his accusations that Croatian intelligence agents had recruited Bosnian citizens to plant weapons in Islamic places of worship in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
Mektić told reporters later he maintained this information was correct and that the covert operation was not completed because it was uncovered and prevented by BiH's Intelligence and Security Agency (OSA). He said part of OSA's job was to "foil any attempt by a foreign intelligence service to infiltrate BiH."
Commenting on the resolute dismissal by Croatia's Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA) of the accusations against it coming from BiH, Mektić said SOA was entitled to defend itself but that its denials should not be trusted.
Asked what he expected the BiH State Prosecutor's Office to do as part of the probe launched yesterday, Mektić said he did not know, yet that he expected nothing as he had no confidence in the Office and its prosecutors.
"Anything can be expected of them, but the only thing that can't be expected of them is to really fight against such problems," he said, adding that launching the probe was just a cover for an attempt to "protect relatives and friends and save someone's reputation."
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