Political leaders condemn shooting at US embassy in Bosnia
Sunday 13 November 2011By Cristian Gherasim
Last month’s shooting at US embassy in Sarajevo was a stark reminder that ethnic tensions still run high in the region.
Bosnia is home to a small minority of Wahhabism followers, a strict, ultra-conservative branch of Islam that is dominant in Saudi Arabia.
During Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war between the Croat, Serb and Muslim communities, a large number of volunteers from Muslim nations rushed to the Balkan country to take up arms. Many of these Muslim fighters stayed on after the conflict ended and gained Bosnian citizenship. Their impact was not to be underestimated, as they started preaching a more radical form of Islam to local communities.
This is where the gunman, Mevlid Jasaveric, came from. He is from a predominantly Muslim Serbian town, close to the Bosnian border, which holds a significant Wahhabi community.
Carrying two hand grenades and a Kalashnikov, he disembarked from a tram on Sarajevo’s main traffic artery and began firing at the US Embassy for almost half an hour. During his shooting spree, the lone gunman injured a security guard. The attacker was later immobilized by a sniper shooting him in the ankle.
Jasaveric’s aunt said that his nephew has been a good kid but later became radicalized in the small Bosnian town of Gornja Maoca, known as a secretive Wahhabi community.
Previously, Jasaveric and another suspected wahabbi were reportedly detained by police in Novi Pazar in November last year during a visit of ten ambassadors to the town. It was reported that Jasaveric and the other man were questioned by police as potentially dangerous for the diplomats. Jasaveric had a knife in his possession at that time.
As political leaders flocked to condemn the shooting, we can’t help but notice that such attacks are harder to prevent as the country is going through a political deadlock. Bosnia and Herzegovina has been without a state government since last year’s elections. Undoubtedly, while politicians vow never to let this happen again, political stagnation will continue to have a negative impact on Bosnia’s national security.