Borders close against holy warriors

WITH THE deployment in Bosnia of US forces, Washington has asked the Bosnian government to deport some 4,000 mujahideen (holy warriors).

These belong to groups which can only be called the "Islamic International Brigades", founded along the lines of the left-wing International Brigades which fought against the Fascists in Spain during the civil war.

There is considerable concern in the west that these warriors, who are bitterly anti-US and anti-Nato, could attack the Implementation Force (IFOR).

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, police have arrested 18 mujahideen since December 29th and seized weapons and explosive devices with which it was alleged the men intended to wage a jihad (holy war) on a global scale.

Yesterday the Manila authorities announced that one of the latest detainees, Mr Muhammad Amin, a Pakistani, had, allegedly, been plotting to assassinate both Pope John Paul II and the President of the Philippines, Mr Fidel Ramos.

Recent bomb explosions in the French, Saudi and Pakistani capitals have been attributed to mujahideen elements who infiltrate local Muslim immigrant communities.

Among the warriors on these widely separated fronts are Iraqis, Sudanese, Turks, Saudis, Algerians, Egyptians, Jordanians and Palestinians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.

Active mujahideen are to be found in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, the Palestinian self-rule areas, Pakistan and Afghanistan Algeria and Egypt.

The mujahideen have not yet been relegated to the hiring themselves out to all and sundry but remain dedicated Islamic revolutionaries.

Many of the mujahideen are veterans of the US-sponsored, Saudi-financed war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Trained by the Pakistanis under the aegis of the US intelligence agencies, most of the "Afghans" are half-educated men unemployable except as holy warriors.

Several thousand remained in Pakistan after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. During 1995 the US put pressure on Pakistan to expel them mujahideen but Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Algeria have either arrested homecoming mujahideen or refused to admit their own nationals, fearing they would raise the flag of Islamist revolt.

Thus, the 4,000-odd mujahideen now being expelled from Bosnia cannot expect to be welcomed at home as heroes in the struggle against the separatist Serbs. Moreover, there are fewer and fewer places prepared to grant them asylum. Libya has been expelling alien Islamists, leaving only Iran and Sudan as places where mujahideen may reside.