- Title: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: Muslim ex-fighters face deportation from Bosnia
- Date: 27th September 2007
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Bosnian) AL-HUSSEIN'S DAUGHTER NUDZEIMA SAYING: "It would be simply impossible to cope with. There is no one in the world who would like to leave his country just because he is forced to do so. The other option would be that we stay here and continue our schooling here but without our father, which would also be very difficult because we don't work and we woul
- Embargoed: 12th October 2007 13:00
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- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVAB0RKSKR4VUEST1SANAY7YEPHP
- Story Text: A Bosnian government commission has revoked the citizenship of 500 former foreign Muslim fighters during and after the 1992-95 war. Some 1,300 such former fighters had been awarded citizenship following the war.
Dozens of former Islamic fighters who came to Bosnia to fight alongside Bosnian Muslims during the 1992-95 war and are now facing deportation.
A government commission has revoked 500 citizenships out of 1,300 that had been awarded to foreigners during and after the war, a move seen as part of a security drive urged by the United States.
Most former fighters left Bosnia after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. But those who stayed, mostly because of family ties, say they are innocents whose lives have been destroyed by political directives from abroad.
Syrian-born Imad al-Hussein, one of those threatened with deportation, said he was not a threat to national security.
"Of course, this accusation is not true, if they had any evidence of it they would have taken me to court. The hand that came to help Bosnia in the past would never be a threat to it in the future. We came to help them," al-Hussein said.
He said he would be fearful of his personal safety if he were to go back to his former country, Syria.
"As far as Syrian law in concerned, I am considered to have deserted army service. The other charge I would face would be serving in the army which used to be called the Mujahideen army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it is considered an Islamic group with Islamic leanings, which is something which is these days associated with al-Qaeda," al-Hussein said.
His story is typical of many volunteers who stayed on in Bosnia. He arrived in the former Yugoslavia in 1980 as a student, joined the Bosnian Muslims in their fight against Bosnian Croats and Serbs and decided to stay afterwards.
He has a Bosnian wife and six children. His appeal against loss of citizenship was rejected, and a request for asylum and "humanitarian residence" because he has a Bosnian family was also denied.
His children are torn between wanting to be with their father and stay in the country in which they grew up.
"It would be simply impossible to cope with," al-Hussein's teenage daughter Nudzeima said of the prospect of leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"There is no one in the world who would like to leave his country just because his is forced to do so. The other option would be that we stay here and continue our schooling here but without our father, which would also be very difficult because we don't work and we would be left on our own,"
she said.
Al-Hussein says he fears for his children's well-being if they were to be uprooted from their home.
"Of course, it will be a great shock for my family and the children, because we have lived here for over 20 years, so this matter will affect them greatly. We are also here speaking about a change in their social and economic situation, and only God known how the children will adjust to this."
The government says the citizenships were awarded illegally, but critics say the procedure was perfectly regular at the time.
A senior U.S. diplomat in Bosnia, Raffi Gregorian, said last month that dozens of those former fighters posed a threat to Bosnian national security and were regarded as supporters of al-Qaeda.
Bosnia's public has been divided over the issue. Some are sympathetic to the plight of those who came to help them during the war, when they were outnumbered and outgunned by the Bosnian Serbs and under an arms embargo by the West.
But many more fear they want to impose their strict customs on the traditionally tolerant and liberal Bosnian Muslims.
Ayman Awad, another Syrian-born former fighter, said people like him had originally come to Bosnia to help its Muslim inhabitants.
"The Mujahideen came to Bosnia from most countries in the Muslim World and from other countries to help their brothers who were suffering in Bosnia and Herzegovina," Awad said.
Standing at the outskirts of the Bosnian city of Zenica and pointing at graves of foreign Muslim fighters who were killed in action, he continued, "This is what remains of many of them, this here is a part of them, many were buried here near the city of Zenica. Those who remained alive in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Bosnian government is now deporting them, through revoking their citizenship and separating them from their families."
"This is not fair because there is no legal backing for this move, they are giving in to outside American and European pressure to get the Mujahideen out of Bosnia," Awad said.
Human rights groups have warned the authorities against deportations of volunteers to countries where they might face torture or other abuse.
He and others plan to appeal against the deportations at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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