After the recent arrest of Vjekoslav Vukovic, the Bosnian deputy minister of security and chairman of the commission for reviewing citizenship, members of the former Al Mujahideen brigade submitted through their team of attorneys to authorities in Bosnia a request for rescinding the decision to strip more than 400 members of the former brigade who arrived in Bosnia from the Aabic-Islamic world of Bosnian citizenship. 

The arrest of Vukadinovic on suspicion of terrorism, finally opened the doors to justice to the Mujahideen in Bosnia and restored smiles on their faces because, as they say, a man who spent his entire time trying to prove that the Mujahideen are terrorists, was himself arrested as a terrorist.

Because of this, they say optimistically, the butcher of their reputation and the shameless mercenary for international secret services, especially for the CIA, stepped into one of the mines he set up himself and gave the Mujahideen opportunity to point their fingers at his integrity and signature with which he tried to seal the fates of more than 400 former fighters.

They consider Vukovic a common criminal 

In an exclusive conversation for Javno, Aiman Awad, the president of the Association of Naturalised Citizens of Bosnia and former member of the Al Mujahideen brigade, accused Croats and Serbs of wanting to exact revenge on the Mujahideen by persecuting them for them foiling their plans to create a Greater Serbia and a Greater Croatia on Bosnian territory. He admitted that late last year he spoke with investigators of the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague who are preparing new indictments for former members of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He accused Cardinal Vinko Puljic of trying to get American support for the policy of extreme Croats in Bosnia in his speech at the Georgetown University in Washington.

- The truth arrived and the lie disappeared, lie does really disappear – is a quote from the Koran (ayet Al-Isra, 18) whose truth Awad says witnessed, including when he heard the news about the arrest of Vjekoslav Vukovic.

- At first I could not believe it. Everything we have always known suddenly became clear to the entire world – Awad said satisfactorily.

Vukovic, he continued, was revealed as the common criminal he is and a terrorist with a lot of power in his hands. He is the man who was responsible for former Al Mujahideen members being stripped of citizenship, for Imad Al Husein (Abu Hamza) being declated a threat to national security and is now at the Lukavica immigration centre, in the Chetnik Draze Mihajlovic Street, to the shame of Bosniaks and Croats, he said.

Citizenships will be reviewed 

- Still, what points to God’s justice Is definitely the fact that the ‘mighty’ Vukovic was in prison in Croatia’s Rijeka for terrorism and threats to national security of the Republic of Croatia – Awad said.

In the past several days, his attention was focused on Raffi Gregorian, deputy International High Representative in Bosnia.

- Raffi Gregorian was, among other things, Vukovic’s mentor who constantly pressurised him and the Bosnian executive authority to exile all Arabs from the country. We will now insist on a complete revision of our citizenships and that all decisions with Vukovic’s signature be rescinded. As it is evident, Vukovic is not a man with credibility for such decisions – Awad said.

He also claims about Vukovic’s people in the commission, Miodrag Pandurovic, and Armin Pesta, that they gave rise to a number of logical questions with their conduct.

He explained to us why he is convinced that it is Croats and Serbs who are behind their persecution from Bosnia.

- By the time the Al Mujahideen brigade joined in the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croats and Serbs were militarily too powerful and already began dividing the country among themselves. After we arrived we changed the balance on the battlefield and we went from a defensive phase to an offensive, liberating parts of the territory from Serbs and Croats, thus foiling their plans. That we are a thorn in the sides of both is also evident from the Dayton Agreement, which they cite and which says that all foreign fighters must leave the country. Well, if they are observing the Dayton agreement, then why are not other fighters from other countries who fought on those two sides being stripped of their citizenships, just ours? In one village on the Drina River, there is an entire village of fighters from Romania and the Ukraine who fought on the Serb side and which nobody touches – Awad told us.

Anybody touching on the innocent must pay for their inhumanity 

As an example, he mentioned Chris Wilson, a British soldier who fought on the Croat side, who lives in Busovaca and who killed almost every employee of the Busovaca town hall because they cut off his electricity. He was in jail for that, but he still has Bosnian citizenship and enjoys Busovaca.

- There are endless examples like that in Bosnia and if you think I’m wrong, convince me otherwise – Awad said.

So, we tried. We mentioned Madrid, London, Mumbai, we counted innocent victims of Islamic terrorism and accentuated the growing fear of increasing messages of hatred that arrive from the Bosnian village of Gornja Maoca, from religious separation of the Wahhabis and the more frequent occurrence of radical Islam that has already taken too many innocent victims in the name of Alah. Still Awad remained unconvinced.

The people who held decapitated heads were free shooters 

- Whoever committed a crime is a criminal, whoever committed a war crime is a war criminal and whoever committed an act of terrorism is a terrorist. Every crime has its name and one entire people should not be equalised to it. We, just like all the rest of the normal world, denounce every form of terrorism and we believe that anybody who touches on the innocent must be accountable for their inhumanity. The fact that we are of different faith and looks does not mean we are enemies. The Islam preaches peace, tolerance and love and every true believer must also embrace members of other faiths. To compare Al Mujahideen with terrorists is insane. We took up fighting when the Bosnian Muslims were endangered. The same day the war ended, we out down our weapons and have lived in peace since. But unfortunately, whenever something happens, everybody points their finger at us. Also, when the incident turns out to have been a conflict between criminals, nobody will say that we had nothing to do with it after all. Believe me, during all these nine years, there was only one incident from so-called our side and the man justifiably ended up in prison – Awad says as we compare his words and the horrific images of war.

Decapitated heads in the hands of smiling Arab fighters left this part of the world with a lot of

- The people you speak about were free shooters. Meaning, they did not belong to the Al Mujahideen brigade which was a part of the 3rd Corps of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina and they were active before our brigade was formed. Late last year I was called as a witness to The Hague, but as the authorities took away my documents, the Hague investigators had to come to me.

They want to show us as a group that wants to endanger the lives of Croats in Bosnia 

- They showed me some 200 documents containing acts and orders, they asked me what operations we led, the conversations we had and they insisted the most on a speech of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Army commander, Rasim Delic, which he delivered in 2005 when he way saying goodbye to the Mujahideen who were leaving Bosnia. I answered all the questions I knew the answers to. Although they are preparing new indictments for members of the Bosnian Army who will be tried in local courts, I am convinced that none of them will pertain to anybody from the Al Mujahideen because, while talking with them, I realised they had no evidence against our fighters. There were various groups that acted on their own accord in the war, but never the Al Mujahideen – Awad is determined.

In the end he commented on the lecture by Cardinal Puljic at Georgetown University in Washington on the subject “Inter-Religious Dialogue and co-existence in post-war Sarajevo”.

- With his speech, Cardinal Puljic intended to gain support from the United States to the political campaign of extreme Croats in Bosnia who want a third entity at any cost. The best way to do that was for him to use emotions by telling stories about the threats he was getting from the Wahhabists. But I ask:  should not such threats have been investigated by now? Anybody can pick up a telephone, say they are a Wahhabist and make a threat! Unfortunately, it is my opinion that the background of all this is just the need to show us up as people who endanger the lives of Croats in Bosnia – Awad concluded.