Last Days of "Paradise"

Dani, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina, January 19 1998

During the war and several months into the post-war period, the village of Guca Gora was one of the main Mojahedeen bases in Bosnia. Bosniak refugees, who started to move into this village in 1993, say that about 300 foreign Muslim warriors used to live there. The leader of this group was renowned Abu Hamza, the man for whom the Federal Police has been searching unsuccessfully. Dani visited Guca Gora and in a conversation with the locals learnt the cruel truth about "Arab totalitarianism" that suffocated their Bosnian soul and the right to live according to Bosnian laws. In this case, Mojahedeen were not fabricated by the western media: this is an unwritten story about a reign of terror that resulted in destroyed Bosnian youths who are trying to come to their senses in the prison in Zenica after months and years of training according to Hamza's "rules of the game". In Guca Gora, there are no more Mojahedeen.

The village of Guca Gora, ten kilometers from Travnik, was the main stronghold of Abu Hamza and his people for more than three years. Immediately after their arrival they imposed their lifestyle and introduced "Arab" laws. In practice that meant, recall the locals, that all of them had to regularly attend prayers [or "do namaz"; done five times a day, one of religious duties in Islam] and in "the Arab" way (every namaz consists of four rekjats), women had to be covered, children as well, swearing was not allowed and contact with kafirs [unbelievers] (Serbs or Croats) was also forbidden. No one dared contradict the chief of the village, Hamza. His men issued orders and threats, beat up people, and basically introduced a reign of terror "in the name of Allah". They kept repeating that there were following Allah's way. They succeeded in their intentions for two reasons: fear and hunger. The locals complied to avoid "disappearance" and to feed their children.

"For $100 and regular monthly assistance our children would leave front lines and switch to their unit," says an elderly man who still does not understand how come no one in the Army reacted to that type of desertion, although an autonomous and independent brigade was later formed from those youths and Mojahedeen. "I've never seen them fight anywhere. I respect the fighters from El-Mujaheed, I fought next to them, but these... It was obvious that they came here with a different goal," says one of the locals who is still afraid to reveal his name to journalists. The need to stay anonymous is a general characteristic in Guca Gora. These Bosniaks can hardly say a word. They still remember Hamza's men armed to the teeth with bombs, sniper rifles, shoulder held rocket launchers... The locals would rather be killed than photographed. Seventy-year-old grandmother, who used to be Hamza's next door neighbor says: "I would gladly tell you everything about that but he is not human, he is a devil. Look, even now, they caught everyone except for him. If he saw my name or picture in a newspaper he would immediately slaughter me." Her neighbor, shaking his head, adds: "They have a lot of followers. And who knows, maybe Hamza and the two Arabs who are still on the loose are still in the area. They know this area really well. They have lived here with us for years."

The Place of Jihad

Arabs told the locals that they were invited to Bosnia-Hercegovina to fight. To the question about who invited them, one local replies: "That's what we wanted to know as well. They said: ' Alija Izetbegovic. Exactly like Karadzic invited Russians'." These men, says one of the locals who were in close contact with them, were cheated. They were promised houses and land in Bosnia. "Most of them had not lived in Arab countries before the arrival to Bosnia. They said that they go wherever there is Jihad. Most of them were not true Muslims, but converted Christians. There were even a few converted Jews. Hamza told me that. Once, I heard one of them call on prayer and I found it suspicious that he made many pauses and had trouble with pronunciation. I found out that he was born Roman Catholic. Hamza is a real Muslim, born in Tunisia. However, he left Tunisia nine years ago. I asked him why he did not return to his country and he replied that he would immediately be killed. I did not dare ask any more questions."

The most important task of the Arabs, as they emphasized themselves, was to recruit young Bosniaks to their ranks. After various courses to which they were sent, these young men would become religious fanatics and would reject their own parents "in the name of Allah". They would tell everyone that only they were right and everyone else was wrong. An elderly woman, who regularly attended Hamza's mosque ("I had to, I had nothing to eat"), remembers that he once said: "There are about 25,000 Arabs in Bosnia. Now we only need to recruit as many Bosnians and then we shall form a Corps. The Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina will then see who we are. We shall rule Bosnia. You will have to cover yourself. If you refuse, we shall kill you." This woman is covered but, as the majority of Bosnian elderly women, only with a kerchief tied below her neck, and that was not sufficient. The elderly woman has this to say about Hamza's success in his intention to "recruit young men": "They've misled the people. Look at them now, the prison is full of them. Hamza's Army!"

Halal Only to Bosnia

"This is a huge shame for me," Mustafa continues with downcast eyes. "This is a strong comparison, but when my younger son was killed in Jajce, he was 16. I placed him with my own hands in a grave. However, this was much more difficult." Hamza, claims Pracalic, managed to take his son away from home when he was only 18. "I know that my son is guilty, but is his guilt the same as theirs? I do not want to meddle in judicial matters but the main organizer lived here for three years and no one touched him nor knew anything about his intentions. I cannot understand that. I served for four years in the Army and I did that for Bosnia, no one else. But inside me, there was a worse war against the Arabs, than the one fought on the front lines. They wanted to take my younger son away as well. Fortunately, he was still a minor and I could control him. I couldn't do anything with the elder son, he was already an adult." Mustafa Prcalic went several times to the Police, wrote complaints, tried to warn about what was going on, but: "No one listened, and on few occasions they even refused to see me at the Police station. The Arabs recruited youths aged 18 to 20, those who were the easiest to mislead. I cannot accept that to this day. That could have been prevented. These people should have been controlled and someone should have paid attention to who deals with our youth."

About the crime of his son Samir he says the following: "An Arab with a long beard came together with a covered woman and asked for Samir. Hamza had already left the village and I was hoping that they would leave Samir alone. However, the Arab said that he was the new chief of their organization in the Balkans and that he wanted to give Samir some packages, left over from the previous year". They really brought the packages. "They were bringing all sorts of stuff for full two days: meat, flour..." Months before that Samir had to wear his grandmother's shoes because he had no money. He left with the Arab and was gone for five days. "That's when it happened. Later he showed up in new shoes and clothing and I asked him where he got that. He said: 'I found a job. I traveled with my new boss all over Bosnia. We found humanitarian aid that was hidden by others'." That evening there were news on the TV that unknown attackers had abducted a car with Croats. Two days later, Samir was arrested. His wife said that in jail Samir confessed to everything and that Arabs would kill him when he gets out.

"Hamza is not a man, he is a terrorist"

Besides, the story about Samir's recruitment reveals that the Arabs are very skillful in that. First they "work" on the parents. When they tried to prevent the departure of "the misguided son" Hamza began to visit the house with threats - since they were against "the followers of Allah". Mustafa has numerous examples for what these followers were like and what they did. Here is one of them: "They were trying to convince my wife to leave her job with the Bosnian Army. They said that they would give her every month 50kg of flour and aid packages, if only she stopped feeding bandits. I guess I am a bandit too, since I fought with that army."

Mustafa is not the only person who had problems because of disagreement with the Arabs. The collective tragedy of Guca Gora spread from the young to the old, although the former were in a more difficult position as is illustrated by "the village-dance case" told by several people in the tape-recorder of this journalist: "Hamza is not a man, he is a terrorist. Once, a dance was organized in the neighboring village of Krpeljica. Young people gathered to have some fun. The Arabs found out and went there. They chased everyone away, broke all the musical instruments, wounded a girl and beat up one of the men so badly that he suffered concussions. Both he and the girl ended up in a hospital: she was released after a treatment, but the boy had to stay in the hospital. The following day, Hamza went to the hospital, threw him out of the bed and chased him home, claiming that he was fine. The director of the hospital and the Police were there. Why did not they intervene?"

Hamza and his followers are gone. During the last year, Hamza visited the village several times. During the summer, he had a house built for himself in the village of Kokici, near a dense forest, so that he could easily escape if SFOR attacks him. Several young men from Guca Gora helped Hamza to build the house, although they claim that they did that for money rather than because of ideological reasons. The Police was at the time looking for Hamza. The quality of their search is indicated by the fact that the mentioned men were not even questioned about Hamza's whereabouts. The men did not make an effort to turn Hamza in. In Guca Gora, there are no Mujahedeen any more.

Be Good With IFOR and Die

Story About Sara

One of the women from the village told us this about Sara: "Hamza recruited his next door neighbor and another refugee to work on the reconstruction of the school. He told them to take soil from Jusuf's yard. It was about noon. I was cooking when something little appeared at the door. I only saw a gun: it was Sara. She said she was going to shoot. I said: 'Why do you want to kill me, what have I done to you!' She said that she was going to kill two men, next to her house. I said 'Who is going to come close to your Arab house at this time, when they don't dare get near it even at night?' We got out, I first, she behind me. Fortunately, all the men were in the mosque. She pointed out baked soil that someone had been taking away. I said, 'Sara, it's not their fault. Hamza ordered them to fix the school.' I was shaking. As soon as the prayer finished, I hurried and found those two guys. I called them: 'Alaga, Mujo, why did you go in on your own? Sara was going to shoot you!'"

Alagic a Target