Mujahedin “Disrupted” Bosnian Military

A former Bosnian army officer has told judges presiding over the trial of Enver Hadzihasanovic that local government forces were unable to stop foreign fighters from committing war crimes in central Bosnia in 1993.

This week the court also heard more about the difficulties facing Hadzihasanovic’s troops at the time – including a lack of food, weapons and trained personnel, and conflict with local Croat forces who were meant to be their allies.

Hadzihasanovic is accused of failing to prevent or punish crimes committed by men under his command while he was head of the Bosnian army’s Third Corps. Prosecution lawyers claim that his troops mistreated and murdered non-Muslim civilians and prisoners of war, plundered homes and damaged two Croat Catholic churches.

It is alleged that his subordinates at the time included mujahedin – foreign Muslim fighters who are named as the perpetrators of a number of crimes for which the defendant is being called to account, including severe beatings of prisoners of war.

But lawyers for the accused have argued that far from being an integrated part of the Bosnian army, the mujahedin actually operated independently and were in fact viewed as a problem by government forces.

Defence witness Rezija Siljak, who acted as a chief of staff under the defendant during the period in question, confirmed this. But he said his own brigade was ill-equipped and didn’t have a mandate to deal with the problem militarily.

During cross-examination by prosecutors on October 26, Siljak told the court that foreign fighters began to arrive in the central Bosnian municipality of Travnik in 1992 and started to operate as unofficial groups.

They brought with them religious attitudes that were out of step with the relatively relaxed approach to Islam generally found in Bosnia.

“They tried to establish certain standards of behaviour,” Siljak told the court. “I could provide you with numerous examples of mujahedin approaching women who didn’t have veils on.”

He also said that the mujahedin had herded customers out of bars, detained the owner of one such establishment and “demolished” another.

Siljak’s own wife was driven from her village in 1993 by local followers of the mujahedin because she came from an ethnically mixed family.

The prosecution demanded to know why nothing was done about the foreign fighters, who were greatly outnumbered by local government forces. Labelling the mujahedin “untouchable”, they suggested the explanation was that the army had struck a deal with them in their fight against the common Serb enemy.

But Siljak said senior officers of his own 306th Brigade viewed the mujahedin as a problem and had raised the matter with their superiors in the Third Corps.

“This was frequently discussed,” said the witness. “We informed [our superiors] because our combat readiness was being disturbed.”

But he insisted that little could be done, claiming that any armed conflict against the mujahedin, who enjoyed the support of some of the local population, could have led to “terrible consequences”.

While admitting that there were some 5,000 government troops in the area, he insisted that they were unable to solve the “problem” of the mujahedin because of the poor conditions at the time.

“We were [backed] by men who were not trained... we did not have enough weapons, we did not even have enough food when we were on the move. When we take all that into consideration... I believe that we did all we could,” said the witness.

The prosecution, seeking to establish a firm link between the army and the mujahedin, presented Siljak with a document signed by him in December 1993. At that time, he had left his brigade to become chief of staff of another unit in the Third Corps. The witness confirmed that the document was an order calling for a meeting in preparation for a military operation to capture territory.

One of the units due to be represented at the meeting was the El-Mujahed detachment, which prosecutors claim was made up of foreign volunteers and was subordinated to Bosnian army units for specific operations.

Siljak admitted that foreigners fought in the El-Mujahed detachment alongside local Bosnians, but told the court that he suspected the unit had been formed in response to complaints that independent mujahedin groups operating autonomously were causing trouble for the military.

In any case, Hadzihasanovic had left his position as commander of the Third Corps the month before this particular order was drafted - and the indictment against him only covers the period up to that change.

And while Siljak confirmed that the Third Corps command had issued an order as early as August for the El-Mujahed detachment to be subordinated to the 306th Brigade, he said the unit had at that time refused to comply.

Testimony given by other defence witnesses continued to flesh out the defence counsel’s strategy of providing a detailed context for the alleged crimes listed in the indictment against Hadzihasanovic.

Siljak and two other former Bosnian army officers who testified this week – Hasim Ribo and Hamed Mesanovic – told the court that Bosnian army units in the Travnik area faced immense difficulties after the war broke out.

They spoke about a huge influx of refugees into the town, a lack of food, accommodation and trained military personnel, and a shortage of weapons so severe that soldiers had to hand over their rifles to those relieving them at the end of every shift.

They also said local Bosnian army units were caught up in an effort to avoid conflict with a parallel military organisation, the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, which had been set up by ethnic Croats living in the area.

Despite the fact that both groups shared the goal of fighting Serb forces, the witnesses said Bosnian army troops were forced to put up with the HVO mounting roadblocks and taking over a series of buildings in the town.

Hasim Ribo also confirmed Croatia’s involvement in the conflict in Central Bosnia.

He told the court that the HVO had received weapons from Croatia, and that he personally had seen two Croatian army tanks in the Travnik area and had also observed Croatian air force helicopters involved in combat operations.

The trial continues.

Michael Farquhar is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.