The Srebrenica Massacre - Nova Srpska Politicka Misao

Prelude to the Capture of Srebrenica
Izetbegovic had begun his career as recruiter for the SS Handschar party
which Nazi SS leader Heinrich Himmler had set up for Bosnian Muslims
and which was led by the fanatically anti-Semitic Mufti of
Jerusalem. Izetbegovic was later jailed for his intolerant writings by Yugoslavia
communist leader Josip Broz Tito. While cultivating a tone of
moderation in dealing with Western leaders during the Bosnian conflict,
Izetbegovic remained a fervent admirer of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini
and frequent traveler to Iran. Izetbegovic’s Islamic Declaration, first
circulated in 1970 and published in time for his 1990 campaign for the
presidency of Bosnia Herzegovina, stated: “There can be no peace or
coexistence between the ‘Islamic faith’ and non- Islamic societies and
political institutions… Islam clearly excludes the right and possibility of
activity of any strange ideology on its own turf. 12
Thousands of copies of the Islamic Declaration were distributed to
members of the Army of Bosnian Herzegovina. Significantly, President
Izetbegovic never disavowed his stated views during the war or afterward
while fighting to consolidate control over a republic in which Serbs
and Croatians together held a numerical majority over Muslims, who
were the largest single ethnic group. Within the first few months of war,
Yossef Bodansky, Chief of Staff of the U.S. House Subcommittee on
Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, published a report detailing
the assistance the Bosnian Muslim faction had been receiving from Islamist
extremist organizations and states, especially Iran. 13
On two occasions in 1994, Der Spiegel’s respected Balkan correspondent
Renate Flottau encountered Osama Bin-Laden in the waiting
room of the office of Bosnian President Alija Izetgevovic. Bin-Laden,
then based in Sudan, had received a Bosnian passport from the Vienna
embassy of Bosnia - Herzegovina according to the Bosnian Muslim daily
Dani. 14 Bin-Laden and his military chief of Staff Ayman al-Zawahiri
helped establish the Mujahadeen fighters as a force in Bosnia, mostly as
special forces of the 7th Corps of the Bosnian Army in Central Bosnia.
Bodansky notes that support for the Bosnian Muslims was the first time
that Shiite and Sunni Muslim terrorist organizations worked together.
Yet, despite the presence of these extremist elements, and opposition
by CIA Director James Woolsey, the Clinton administration gave the
green-light to an increase in arms shipments from Iran. The policy to facilitate
illegal arms imports was promoted by U.S. National Security
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