He lives in an apartment next to the old mosque with two children, a wife and parents. Muderis was born in Zepa, where his parents survived through the war. After the fall of Zepa, they were evacuated using false names.
The French IFOR battalion is based in Sarajevo and its zone of responsibility covers the south of Bosnia-Hercegovina, mostly the Neretva river valley. The amount of traffic on the road Mostar-Sarajevo primarily depends on the mobility of the French IFOR soldiers. Every morning, IFOR soldiers can see the graffiti on a concrete support wall next to the road saying "Be happy, the Army, the victory is near" and "Allahu Ekber" written in Arabic, which was the salute of the defenders of Bosnia. In Tarcin, flags of the Party for Democratic Action (SDA) and Saudi Arabia are flying on a building next to the main street. The façade of the building carries the logo of Radio Hayat.
The best known name today in the Neretva valley, besides Safet Orucevic, the mayor of Mostar, is Muderis. Muderis is an imam from Konjic, Nezim Halilovic, who, as an ordinary person, picked up a gun and became a commander of a brigade. The image of this burly man is original: with black beard, glasses, black scarf which, like long hair falls down on his wide shoulders, and a headband which says La ilahe illa Allah Muhammeden resulullah; sometimes, he carries a long sabre in a leather sheath. Every Friday, he gives a speech in the old city mosque, which was built in 1874 by an Ottoman warrior.
He lives in an apartment next to the old mosque with two children, a wife and parents. Muderis was born in Zepa, where his parents survived through the war. After the fall of Zepa, they were evacuated using false names.
IFOR's search of the barracks of the fourth Muslim Brigade took place two days after an interview of president Izetbegovic to the Sarajevo magazine Fokus, in which he stated that there are no more foreigners in the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina. Three days after the break-in into the barracks of the Fourth Muslim Brigade, an IFOR troops carrier drove into the barracks of the 17th Muslim Brigade in Sarajevo on a "routine reconnaissance" mission.
LJILJAN: Where were you when the IFOR soldiers burst into the command of your brigade?
MUDERIS: I was at home.
When did you find out what was happening?
I was bowing an early prayer. When I got ready to go to the barracks, two young guys, who were on their way to Fojnica, stopped by to tell me that IFOR had "burst into" the barracks. I was not especially surprised, since they had earlier stopped by, usually looking for me. They had failed to find me in the past because I had tried to avoid such contacts.
What did really happen in the barracks?
IFOR soldiers burst in at 5:40. First they broke into the storage rooms. They burst into the office of the commander of the company, which is next to the storage room, and woke him up with a barrel of a gun aimed at his temple. He stood like that for thirty minutes in front of them in his underwear. They turned the room upside down and confiscated two hunting rifles. They went to the yard, where they forced all the soldiers to gather. They photographed every soldier and each one of them had to sign his name and surname. One soldier wrote his name illegibly after which IFOR soldiers smashed him against a troop carrier. Cooks were sleeping on the first floor of one house. They could not break the door down, so they came in through a window. Two girls even did not have enough time to get dressed. They made a list of serial numbers of all the weapons. A black flag was flying in the yard. They demanded that we take it down. They gathered all newspapers and magazines. Especially, as incriminating material, they confiscated Preporod, an Islamic news magazine published by the Rijaset of the Islamic Community of Bosnia-Hercegovina, then vaktijas (calendar used to calculate the correct time for a prayer, auth. remark); I had a framed photo on my desk; the photo showed me bowing a group prayer with the fighters. They took that away.
Were in you in contact with the barracks at that time?
I immediately called the barracks and an officer picked up the phone. He just kept repeating "Yes, yes...". I realized that they were standing next to him. He managed to say "you stay where you are". I phoned the headquarters of the Corps and found out that they had sent some people. Brigadier Polutak agreed that this type of action was not envisaged by the Agreement.
I was very concerned regarding the soldiers' reaction. I was afraid that some of them might do something unpredictable. Now, once I've found out what was going on, I am aware that IFOR soldiers were deliberately trying to provoke a clash. They blocked the road from the tunnel near Celebici, where they left a tank, until the bridge in Ribic where they parked another tank. They stopped all vehicles and controlled them.
At about ten o'clock they pretended that they were about to leave, but they soon came back with reinforcements. Then, they continued their search until 5pm.
Their excuse for all this was that some of our soldiers were actually armed civilians. True, some of our soldiers have military trousers and a civilian jacket and the other way round.
I heard that on some foreign radio station they announced that they had information that there were foreigners in our brigade. "Mujaheddin" was written on the door of an old, unusable car. An IFOR soldier saw that and cocked his rifle in order to shoot at the car. He even called two of his colleagues as a reinforcement.
Were you in touch with a command post of the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina?
I was in constant contact with the Brigadier Polutak and the local military security. They warned me not to go to the barracks. No one could leave the barracks, and all those who entered were not allowed to leave.
What is your present function in the Fourth Muslim Brigade?
I am still the commander of the Brigade.
What do you think was the goal of this action by the French?
A pure provocation. They have prejudices about Muslim Brigades. This bad impression was made by the Chetniks and even HVO officers with whom they cooperate very well. They never tried to cooperate with us, although we have fulfilled all the orders coming from the Corps in connection with the Dayton Agreement. Our barracks has been regularly, with all the data, reported to IFOR. According to the order coming from the Corps, we gave them a map with precisely marked objects and their coordinates. We did that ten days ago. We gave them a list of all weapons in the barracks. And we were not obliged to do so. Because we are ten kilometers outside their zone of control.
It is likely that Muslims will wonder after this incident about IFOR's attitude with respect to them. What was your impression of their behavior?
Since they confiscated as incriminating evidence only religious literature which is legally printed here in Bosnia and since they so brutally broke in only into our barracks, I think that they would allow the existence of Bosniaks in this country, but not as Muslims. I am still rather emotional and am convinced that IFOR was given a mandate to exterminate Islam in Bosnia.
Bosniaks accepted IFOR with open arms, and the future development of that relationship will depend on the behavior of IFOR towards the people.
If they state in their report, made for their superiors in the barracks, that "there were no casualties in the action", I can only conclude that they deliberately tried to provoke a conflict with my fighters and in advance counted on casualties in such a military action. I find their readiness for conflict and shooting terrifying.
Can we summarize your activities during the war?
I picked up a rifle, as any other man, and went to wage a war. I was in a group of people who knew each other from the mosque. We were organized as a religious group and I was in charge of religious activities, but with time my responsibility in that organization grew, so that on July 13 1992 we formed a unit and named it the Commando-reconnaissance company Muderis. People called the unit Muderis' company. The Brigade was established on April 4 1994, by the order of the Chiefs of Staff and the Presidency, respectively. MOS [Muslim Intelligence Service] unit from Mostar also joined the Fourth Muslim Brigade.
What were your most significant battles?
That is all well known and the papers have written about all of them. We participated in all significant actions in the Konjic region. Then Igman, Bjelasnica, every battle in the ring around Sarajevo, Vlasic etc.
How many shehids does your unit have?
Muderis' unit had 27 shehids.
Were there foreigners in your unit?
We had ten Arab volunteers who were in Zuko's unit, then they joined our unit and finally went to their own unit El Mudzahid. Most of them were students from Islamic countries who were in Bosnia at the start of the war. Late Kemal was from Sudan and studied in Banja Luka.
There is a story about your black scarf and it is related to a shehid.
I got the scarf from that shehid, Suhajb. He died on the Bjelasnica Mountain. The scarf was damaged by shrapnel.
You are a civilian, and an imam, and you were one of the most successful commanders in the war?
That was a natural process of organization for defense. I was involved as much as I could and in one phase my positions was necessary for the unit. I will not join the Army and I did not want to be a commander. That is a serious responsibility, both in front of Allah and people.
You studied in Cairo, and you have an image of a pro-Iranian man. Today, such relations can be reconciled only with great difficulty in the Islamic world.
I did finish my studies in Cairo, but I am an ordinary Muslim. I expressed myself in the war in the manner which motivated me the most as a fighter. I fought fiercely. Today, in peace, no one should fear me since I am only a man, I do not care about prejudices, especially those of political kind. Some people have badmouthed me, and I claim that no one in the world can find the smallest suspicion that my unit maltreated anyone during the war. I never issued an order that would have something like that as a goal, nor did anyone from my unit do anything like that. True, most of our battles were on mountain tops, regardless of whether we were attacking of defending our positions. We never fought in settlements, not because we avoided that type of fighting, but because the configuration of terrain in this region is such. Just consider the surroundings of Konjic. In the end we were an elite attacking unit. It is true that we fought like men, like honest soldiers. We are proud of that. Enemies were afraid of us, but they did respect us at the same time. People from the Corps headquarters claim that in negotiations with the enemy our opponents mentioned our unit as an example in this sense. I know that the chief problem is that I am an imam, but that was a popular uprising against an unbelievably cruel aggression and the whole people got involved in any way possible in order to survive. Some do not want to understand that, but that it their problem. Because of that they are making various allegations about crimes, in order to compromise Islam, as an idea. Since they cannot find any proof that we committed war crimes, they claim that I was, in a way, an ideologue and instigator of war crimes in this region.
Various black lists are circulating through Bosnia. Have you, perhaps seen one with your name?
No, I haven't, but I have been warned by the security structures from the Army to be careful, which means that they must have such information.
One of the brigadiers, who is active in this region, told me that he recognized among the French Foreign Legion soldiers within IFOR his former colleagues from the Yugoslav People's Army (YPA).
I am sure that the Corps headquarters has evidence for such a claim. They are talking about a lieutenant of the former YPA, a Serb, who is a translator for the French battalion, two Slovenes and several Croats. All of them left YPA and joined the French Foreign Legion and ended up here. There is no doubt in my mind that such bad and harmful attitude of IFOR towards us is the result of their involvement and propaganda.
The press is increasingly frequently writing about a possibility of a new war between HVO and the Army. Does this IFOR action have anything to do with that?
That is possible. However, we should keep one thing in mind: I do not see myself in the Army any more, and we have received an order from the Chiefs of Staff to disband this unit. I have personally submitted a request to be dismissed from the Army. However, in case of any renewed conflict, this unit would be gathered in time and I would do the same I did during the war. We organized ourselves without anyone's orders in 1992 and we do not need any special new orders to gather in the future if necessary.
Your brother is a professor in medresa. He also picked up a gun as an ordinary soldier and became a major.
We are an old Muslim family and we were brought up in the spirit of Islam. My parents survived Zepa. We understood struggle as an obligation. At this time physical armed struggle was the most important.
Do you believe in the present peace?
No, this is only a temporary lull in the war. Again, neither peace nor a new outbreak of conflict depends on us Muslims. We must be prepared. Even in this peace, there are hidden means for war against Muslims.
How do you personally feel in peace?
I must be honest and say that I personally felt better when I freely could go to the Treskavica Mountain. But the people are relieved. That is a good side of the present peace.
However, I've recently been in a miserable situation when I had to hide and could not join my soldiers. I had groups of angry people, I had soldiers who were locked up in the barracks. That was a miserable situation and it hurts. One wonders to what extent we have to bend our pride for the "builders" of peace.
