C. Wiebes - Intelligence en de oorlog in Bosnië 1992-1995. De rol van de inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten - Engels

182The number of mercenaries was never considerable, because the warring factions generally paidpoorly. 945 Therefore it was mainly volunteers that were active. Their military duties ranged from takingpart in hostilities to gathering intelligence. For instance, a Danish volunteer travelled through Srpska ina car with Danish registration plates. His Danish passport gave him sufficient protection forintelligence gathering for Croatia. Many soldiers claimed that they had served with the French ForeignLegion or the SAS, but that seldom proved to be the case. 946 Dutch mercenaries likewise fought on theside of the Croats ‘at Zageb, Zabeg, Zagreb, or whatever it is called’. 947 The mercenaries responded toan advertisement on 2 November 1991 in the newspaper De Telegraaf by the Dutch-Croat Foundations,which was set up by the right-wing extremist Douwe van de Bos. Their applications led to thedeployment of the First Dutch Volunteer Unit in Croatia. 948Most Dutch mercenaries were, like their American, British, Canadian, German and Frenchcounterparts in Croatia, active in the 103rd infantry brigade, which was formed in the winter of 1992 asan International Brigade. There was also a special Italian unit, the Garibaldi battalion. In addition, therewere reports of Dutch mercenaries in Bosnia. According to Serbian accusations, some mercenaries,including Dutch, were guilty of war crimes. 949 One of them was the Dutch mercenary Johan Tilder,who was mentioned in the previous chapter. 950The Mujahedin in BosniaThe greatest tension was caused by the participation of Muslims from Western Europe and the MiddleEast in the ABiH. ‘Approximately 4000 Mujahedin, supported by Iranian special operations forces, havebeen continually intensifying their activities in central Bosnia for more than two years’, according to theAmerican Lieutenant Colonel John Sray, who was an intelligence officer in Sarajevo from April toAugust 1994. 951 There are no reliable figures on the number of mercenaries or volunteers in Bosnia,Srpska and Croatia. Neither is anything known about their effectiveness. According to Bosnian-Serbsources, in the Muslim-Croat Federation there were more than 1300 fighters, including those of Kurdish,Algerian and other Arab origin. This group was said to be centred around Zenica. The MIS considered thenumber mentioned to be exaggerated. 952 Like the author Ripley points out, there was no joint Muslim945 For an overview of most of the paramilitary factions and the role of mercenaries and volunteers, see: MoD, MIS/RNLA,Supintrep no. 29417/4/040794, 04/07/94.946 A. Rogers, ‘Yugoslavia’, in: Flashpoint 1994, London, 1994, pp. 139-148.947 ‘Het moet daar gewoon afgelopen zijn’ (‘It just has to stop there’), De Volkskrant, 02/12/91.948 See for example Sluik & Kurpershoek (eds.), De Duiveljager, pp. 97-109; ‘Oud-strijders mobiliseren Nederlands steunkorpsvoor onderdrukt Kroatië’ (‘Ex-servicemen mobilize Dutch support unit for repressed Croatia’), Trouw, 06/11/91; ‘Extreemrechtsschiet leger Kroatië te hulp’ (‘The extreme right leaps to the aid of Croatia’s army’), Trouw, 07/11/91; ‘Garantiesontbreken: vrijwilligers gaan niet naar Kroatië’ (‘No guarantees: volunteers not going to Croatia’), Trouw, 08/11/91;‘Vrijwilligers alsnog "op verkenning" bij militairen Kroatië’ (‘Volunteers "on reconnaissance" with Croatia’s soldiers afterall’), Trouw, 25/11/91; ‘Ultra-rechts in Europa op de bres voor Kroatië’ (‘The extreme right in Europe into the breach forCroatia’), NRC Handelsblad, 06/11/91; ‘Werving Kroatië-strijders gestopt na kritiek op comité’ (‘Recruitment of Croatiafighters stopped following criticism of committee’), De Volkskrant, 08/11/91; Jos Slats, ‘De huurling gaat omdat de helewereld Kroatië laat stikken’ (‘The mercenary goes because the whole world is leaving Croatia in the lurch’), De Volkskrant,11/12/91; idem, ‘Nederlandse huurlingen vuren op Serviërs’ (‘Dutch mercenaries fire on Serbs’), De Volkskrant, 23/12/91;idem, ‘Vrijwillige strijders vereerd door Kroaten’ (‘Voluntary fighters honoured by Croats’), De Volkskrant, 14/01/92;‘Nederlandse huurlingen gevangen in Hercegovina’ (‘Dutch mercenaries captured in Hercegovina’), De Telegraaf, 25/07/92;and Bert Huisjes, ‘Opgejaagd op de Balkan’ (‘Rout in the Balkans’), Algemeen Dagblad, 19/09/01.949 ‘servische media: Nederlandse huurlingen pleegden oorlogsmisdaden’ (‘serbian media: Dutch mercenaries committed warcrimes’), De Limburger, 18/05/95.950 Confidential interview (19). See also: ‘serviërs schieten Nederlandse huurling dood’ (‘serbs shoot dead Dutch mercenary’),De Limburger, 17/05/94.951 John Sray, ‘selling the Bosnian Myth’, Foreign Military Studies, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, October 1995 and MoD, CRST.Netherlands Army Crisis Staff, Bastiaans to Brantz, 11/07/94.952 MoD, MIS/CO. No. 2694, Developments in the former Yugoslav federation, no. 02/94, 08/09/92. See also; AndrewHogg, ‘Arabs join in Bosnia battle’, intelligence service The Times, 30/08/92.