SARAJEVO, 29 September — Italian troops, part of the international peacekeeping forces in Bosnia, stormed into a Saudi-funded charitable organization in Sarajevo on Thursday night and took away official documents, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported today, quoting a witness.
Two armored vehicles of the Italian forces parked in front of the organization — an orphanage for 3,000 Bosnian children — and 20 soldiers emerged to break its front door down and confiscated official documents, files and all computer devices inside, the paper said.
They also arrested the guard and the cook, who were inside the orphanage at the time of the raid.
Informed sources said the director of orphanage had left for Saudi Arabia a day before the raid and is now in Riyadh. An Asharq Al-Awsat reporter visited the building in Sarajevo and found that its main gate was broken and all its equipment and documents had been removed.
Meanwhile, the interior minister of the country’s Muslim-Croat Federation said yesterday, dozens of militants linked to Bin Laden’s organization are trying to flee Afghanistan for Bosnia.
The ministry said it was ready to intercept those seeking refuge, presumably with local sympathizers, and had already taken measures with the United Nations policing mission and the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia.
