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Church Desecration Video Serves as Jihad Fund-Raiser
By Sherrie Gossett
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
August 11, 2005

(CNSNews.com) -- A violent video showing the desecration of a church and the murder of a Serbian soldier is one of many "jihad" videos currently making the rounds in Western countries to raise funds for Muslim terrorists, according to counter-terrorism experts interviewed by Cybercast News Service.

The graphic footage, stamped Sept. 16, 1995, was videotaped approximately two months before the Dayton Peace Accords, which brought an end to the civil war in Bosnia.

Darko Trifunovic, deputy director of the Center for Security and Investigation of Terrorism at the Belgrade Institute for Political Studies, provided Cybercast News Service with a copy of the video during his recent visit to Washington, D.C. Cybercast News Service has edited the video to remove portions dealing with the killing of the Serbian soldier and other grisly images of copses.

Trifunovic, an attorney, previously served as first secretary in the Bosnia-Herzegovina Mission to the United Nations in New York City and conducted war crimes research for The Hague's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. In the latter capacity, Trifunovic interrogated mujahedeen who were involved in the fighting in Bosnia.

"The video was shot in western Bosnia," said Trifunovic. "It has been shown in Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden and North America for fund-raising purposes."

Evan F. Kohlmann, a Washington D.C.-based terrorism consultant and author, confirmed that videos of Bosnian battles and church desecrations were currently being circulated as inspiration and as a fund-raising tool for jihad-minded terrorists. Kohlmann has previously testified before Congress on terrorism issues.

The video opens with mujahedeen interrogating a Serbian soldier. The soldier was recognized by a relative as 32-year old Rade Rogic, said Trifunovic.

According to a translator consulted by Cybercast News Service, the lead captor asks Rogic, "Do you know who we are?"

"You're the mujahedeen," Rogic replies on the video.

"That's right, we're the mujahadeen." When questioned about his duties, Rogic insists he serves in the "workers' battalion" and only digs ditches. After repeatedly striking the soldier in the face, the interrogator then pressures him to say "Allah is great," before telling the videographer to turn off the camera.

Subsequent footage shows one of the mujahedeen armed with a machine gun and then preparing the weapon for what appears to be a planned execution. Rogic is then shown bloodied and lying face-down on some rocks, apparently having been killed by his captors.

In June of this year the Belgrade newspaper Vecernje Novosti identified Rogic as part of the Radnicki Battalion. The newspaper published a still photograph of his corpse and reported he was born in 1957 in Sanski Most. He apparently was captured after becoming lost in the surrounding forest.

The video footage also depicts mujahedeen forces entering an Orthodox Christian church. One combatant throws down what appears to be a vial of incense before others mock sacred items, break up the altar and vandalize Byzantine-style icons while smiling and singing. One combatant raises his rifle and fires at the cross atop the altar.

>> Continued -- Page 1 2

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