ARE THERE LINKS BETWEEN IZETBEGOVIC AND BIN LADEN?

SARAJEVO, Oct 10 (Hina) - The Bosnian Foreign Ministry has requested cooperation from the Austrian Embassy in the country in explaining claims on alleged links between Party of Democratic Action (SDA) president Alija Izetbegovic and the world's most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden. In a statement issued in Sarajevo on Wednesday, the ministry said the chairman of the Socialist bench in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, Peter Schneider, had recently mentioned the question of ties between volunteers from Islamic countries with Bosnia-Herzegovina, claiming there was a photo of Alija Izetbegovic and bin Laden. Schneider's statement was carried first by Milorad Dodik, a former premier of the Bosnian Serb entity. Dodik said in Banja Luka on Tuesday there was evidence on links between Izetbegovic and Bin Laden and his organisation Al Qaida. The former premier then levelled a number of accusations against Haris Silajdzic and current Bosnian Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija for supporting terrorists and for war crimes against Serbs. Reacting to Dodik's claims in a statement to state television, Izetbegovic called them "childish lies." "If they have the photos, why don't they show them," Izetbegovic said, adding one could not rule out photomontage. Both Izetbegovic and Silajdzic said Dodik was doing what all other Greater Serbia nationalists were doing - using the current crisis to redirect attention from the real terrorists - war criminals, who were still walking freely without fear that Bosnian Serb authorities might bring them to justice. (hina) sb rml