SARAJEVO, Nov 23 (Hina) - Bosnia's Council of Ministers has confirmed a decision on revoking citizenship for 94 persons, mainly from Arabian and African countries, thus adopting solutions signed by the deputy interior minister of the
Croat-Muslim entity, Tomislav Limov. Commenting on the decision, Bosnia's Deputy Foreign Minister Ivica Misic, also the chairman of the state coordinating body for combating terrorism, said on Friday the citizenship was revoked as it had been granted in an entirely illegal way. Particularly puzzling is the fact that the 94 persons were granted citizenship between January and March of 1992, when Bosnia and Herzegovina was not an independent state and could not grant citizenship. Bosnians naturalised this way include 15 Egyptians, as well as persons from Tunis, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and some African countries. The most well-known among the
SARAJEVO, Nov 23 (Hina) - Bosnia's Council of Ministers has
confirmed a decision on revoking citizenship for 94 persons, mainly
from Arabian and African countries, thus adopting solutions signed
by the deputy interior minister of the Croat-Muslim entity,
Tomislav Limov.
Commenting on the decision, Bosnia's Deputy Foreign Minister Ivica
Misic, also the chairman of the state coordinating body for
combating terrorism, said on Friday the citizenship was revoked as
it had been granted in an entirely illegal way.
Particularly puzzling is the fact that the 94 persons were granted
citizenship between January and March of 1992, when Bosnia and
Herzegovina was not an independent state and could not grant
citizenship.
Bosnians naturalised this way include 15 Egyptians, as well as
persons from Tunis, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Qatar,
the United Arab Emirates, and some African countries.
The most well-known among them is the Syrian Imad Al Hussein, aka
Abu Hamza, the leader of the Mujahedeen community in Bocinja, a
village in central Bosnia.
Investigators maintain the contentions citizenship papers were
made in 1995 but were antedated. It is assumed to be part of a ploy
aimed at hiding the tracks of the Mujahedeen whose departure from
Bosnia was demanded by the Americans following the signing of the
Dayton peace agreement in 1995.
Members of the El Moujahid unit did leave Bosnia in a convoy via
Bihac and Zagreb, stopping in Saudi Arabia before flying to Yemen,
Jordan, and Pakistan. The Slobodna Bosna daily, however, claims
most returned to Bosnia.
An unnamed source at the Croat-Muslim federation's interior
ministry claims they settled in Bocinja only subsequently. It is
even assumed the Mujahedeen obtained the Bosnian papers in Bosnian
embassies abroad.
The biggest problem in the whole story is the fact that nobody can
reliably say who hides behind the names of the persons who were
generously granted Bosnian citizenship. These persons were given
new documents without submitting any papers from the countries they
allegedly came from and were born in.
At the moment, Bosnian authorities are facing a difficult technical
problem - how to serve papers on the revoking of citizenship - as
most of these 94 persons do not reside on their official addresses.
Deputy Minister Limov, however, says there will be no hesitation.
If the persons whose citizenship has been revoked fail to lodge an
administrative suit within the legally proscribed deadline, they
will be erased from Bosnia's registers.
(hina) ha sb