Muslim officials who rose to prominence in Bosnia because of their association with the Third World Relief Agency are part of a group of hard-liners who appear committed to maintaining close relations with radical Islamic states and individuals with links to terrorists, Western sources say.
U.S. officials say they worry that these men could use their high positions to provide foreign Islamic terrorists with Bosnian passports and otherwise aid their movement into and out of Europe.
Western officials say these men form the core of a faction within President Alija Izetbegovic's Party of Democratic Action that is seeking the creation of an ethnically homogeneous Muslim state inside Bosnia.
Officials who worked with the Third World Relief Agency now hold high positions in Bosnia's military, defense, diplomatic and executive branches.
"The men who worked for TWRA formed a cell that is dedicated to pushing Bosnia toward the more radical movements of the Middle East," said the head of a Western intelligence agency. "We do not believe that all of Bosnia's Muslims want that. But TWRA gave these men money, influence and power. It brought them and their ideas a long, long way."
U.S. officials said they have identified two men who are of particular concern.
The first is Hasan Cengic, whom Slovenian officials identified as the man who arranged a multimillion dollar deal to bring arms from Sudan to Bosnia via Slovenia in 1992.
An Austrian police official said Cengic was on the relief agency's supervisory board, a fact confirmed by its Sudanese director, Elfatih Hassanein, in a 1994 interview with Gazi Husrev Beg, an Islamic affairs magazine. Cengic later became the key Bosnian official involved in setting up a weapons pipeline from Iran. Today he is deputy defense minister, the highest-ranking Muslim in that ministry.
Cengic, an Islamic cleric, is a longtime associate of Izetbegovic's. He was one of the co-defendants in Izetbegovic's 1983 trial for fomenting Muslim nationalism in what was then Yugoslavia. Cengic was given a 10-year prison term, most of which he did not serve. In trial testimony Cengic was said to have been traveling to Iran since 1983.
Cengic lived in Tehran and Istanbul during much of the war, arranging for weapons to be smuggled into Bosnia. U.S. officials said they suspect Cengic's political beliefs lean toward Iran. In public statements, he has praised Tehran, opposed marriage between Muslims and non-Muslims and backed the idea of a Muslim army -- an idea that clashes with a U.S. program to create a joint force of Croats and Muslims.
A senior U.S. official identified Cengic as the major obstacle to implementing the U.S.-led program to equip Bosnia with more than $100 million worth of weapons and train the joint army. Cengic has refused to create a company that would work with the Alexandria, Va.-based Military Professionals Resources Inc., which has signed a contract to train the joint army, and he has attempted to force the U.S. government to pay large fees in addition to its training and equipment costs, the officials said.
In recent days, U.S. officials have asked Izetbegovic to remove Cengic from his post. But the Bosnians do not appear to be complying.
U.S. officials say a second former Third World Relief Agency official who causes concern is Irfan Ljevakovic.
Ljevakovic, one of the founders of Izetbegovic's political party, was also on the agency's supervisory board, according to Austrian officials and the 1994 interview with Hassanein. Ljevakovic is now a senior official in the Agency for Investigation and Documentation, a Bosnian Muslim secret service that is responsible only to Izetbegovic and to top officials in his Party of Democratic Action.
Ljevakovic is wanted for questioning by the Austrian government for soliciting its citizens to fight as mercenaries in Bosnia, a senior Austrian police officer said. He is also believed to have been one of the main backers of a project to bring foreign Islamic "freedom fighters" to Bosnia under the guise of working for the relief agency.
Suspicions that the organization was used as a front for the Islamic fighters were apparently confirmed last Dec. 14 when Croat gunmen killed five foreign soldiers in a shootout outside the central Bosnian town of Zepce. One of the dead soldiers held an identity card from the Third World Relief Agency, Bosnian sources said.
Bosnian sources said Ljevakovic is one of several influential officials protecting the Islamic fighters who remain in Bosnia in violation of the Dayton peace accord. Last month, Izetbegovic appointed Ljevakovic as the Bosnian representative to a key committee monitoring whether Bosnia has rid itself of all such fighters. The Committee on Foreign Forces in Bosnia includes officials from the Bosnian government, NATO, the United States and other Western powers.
Cengic and Ljevakovic are not the only senior Bosnians involved with the relief agency. Huso Zivalj, Bosnia's ambassador to Austria, was also on its supervisory board, Austrian officials said. Faris Nanic, a senior adviser to Izetbegovic, ran the agency's office in Croatia during the war. CAPTION: BOSNIA'S ISLAMIC CONNECTION Elfatih Hassanein A Sudanese national and co-founder of the Third World Relief Agency (TWRA) in Vienna. He is a member of Sudan's ruling National Islamic Front, a fundamentalist organization. While studying medicine in Yugoslavia in the 1970s, he established a friendship with Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and other Muslim activists. He later became Sudanese cultural attache. He left Austria in 1994. Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman Radical Egyptian cleric, convicted mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center terrorist attack. U.S. law enforcement officials have found documents linking him to TWRA. Osama Binladen Wealthy Saudi Arabian emigre, suspected of sponsoring militant Islamic groups in the Middle East, is believed to have contributed money for arms through TWRA. He is now in Afghanistan, where he has called for attacks on U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf. Irfan Ljevakovic A co-founder of Bosnia's Muslim Party of Democratic Action. Believed to be involved with a project to bring Islamic mercenaries to Bosnia under TWRA's guise. Alija Izetbegovic As president of Bosnia, Izetbegovic backed TWRA to obtain arms for his struggle against separatist Serbs. He also vouched for Hassanein's activities in a 1993 letter to the First Austrian Bank. Hassan Cengic A member of TWRA's supervisory board. He is a trained Islamic cleric and now Bosnia's deputy defense minister. He has been identified as the man who arranged a major 1992 arms deal for Bosnia via Slovenia. CAPTION: Elfatih Hassanein CAPTION: Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman CAPTION: Hassan Cengic
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