Concerns of al-Qaida link in Balkans renewed

updated 8:30 a.m. ET Aug. 29, 2005

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro - The arrest in Serbia of a top terrorist fugitive has raised fresh concerns of an al-Qaida presence in the volatile Balkans, where thousands of U.S. and other international troops are stationed as peacekeepers.

Abdelmajid Bouchar, a 22-year-old Moroccan, sought for involvement in last year’s train bombings in the Spanish capital Madrid, that killed nearly 200 people, was caught at the Belgrade railway station in June.

The arrest, revealed earlier this month, revived concerns that the Balkans — with its porous borders, unsophisticated security systems, rampant corruption and organized crime — could serve as a haven for al-Qaida-linked terrorist groups.

Local officials and experts have long warned that the Balkans at least is a major transit route for the terrorists, as well as for organized crime, including human and drug trafficking. They said the two often go hand in hand.

Serbian Interior Minister Dragan Jocic said police believed Bouchar was most likely passing through Serbia. He noted that “Serbia-Montenegro lies on important east-west transit routes.”

Chance arrest
Bouchar was arrested by chance during a routine police patrol check at a train that arrived to the Serbian capital from the northern town of Subotica, located on the border with Hungary, Serb authorities said.

Bouchar was sitting in a train compartment with several other people. He said he was an immigrant from Iraq en route to Western Europe — a common sight for Serbia’s police which are used to escorting people who are heading west.

But Bouchar stood out, they said. He was traveling in the wrong direction, from north to south, had no documents on him and was too well-dressed for a poor Iraqi immigrant in search of a better life in Western Europe.

A month and a half later, after weeks of back-and-forth with Interpol, it turned out that Bouchar was one of the world’s most wanted fugitives.

“He was arrested thanks to the good thinking of a police officer,” said Darko Trifunovic, who teaches at Belgrade’s security faculty. “This wasn’t a well-planned action.”

No details about Bouchar’s stay in Serbia have been made public. Jocic told The Associated Press that an investigation was under way to determine what he was doing in Belgrade and whether he had any associates here.

'Springboard for Europe-bound terrorism'
Zoran Dragisic, a terrorism expert from Belgrade’s Faculty of Defense, warned that the Balkans could be more than just a transit station.

“The Balkans is the springboard for Europe-bound terrorism,” he told AP. “We should all be extremely careful.”

Dragisic claimed that al-Qaida put down roots in the Balkans in the early 1990s, when the region exploded in a series of ethnic conflicts. The political turmoil and ensuing instability led to the collapse of the security network, allowing organized crime to flourish.

News reports during the conflict in Bosnia suggested that outsiders joined Bosnia’s Muslims in their conflict with the region’s Serbs and Croats — though the extent of their impact in the chaos was never clear. Dragisic said that radical Islamic fighters came to the region to fight.

Some of the outsiders married local women and stayed long after the end of the 3 1/2 year war.

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