Bosnian Serbs return to 'holy war' village

By the BBC's Alix Kroeger in Sarajevo

A village in central Bosnia which was illegally occupied by Islamic Mujahideen fighters has been handed back to its original Bosnian Serb residents.

The Mujahideen, who came from Islamic countries to fight in the Bosnian war, have been evicted from the village of Bocinja, near Maglaj. They had lived there since the war ended more than five years ago.

The keys to more than a dozen reconstructed houses were handed over to the Bosnian Serbs by the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, in a ceremony to mark a formal end to the Mujahideen's stay.

The Mujahideen fought for the Bosnian army

The last of the Mujahideen were evicted earlier in March, clearing the way for the ceremony.

The fighters, from countries including Iran, Afghanistan and Egypt, originally came to the country to fight alongside Bosnian Muslim government forces.

Under the Dayton peace accords, they were supposed to leave Bosnia by the end of 1995, but many of them stayed on, marrying local women and setting up their own Islamic community in Bocinja.

There they lived illegally but undisturbed until last year, when the Serbs of Bocinja decided they wanted to return.

Mujahideen resistance

Last July, when the Mujahideen first learned of the plans to evict them, they set up road blocks around the village for three days.

They vandalised the houses they were forced to vacate, stripping them of furniture and fittings, and there was more confrontation in January when troops from the Nato-led stabilisation force S-Ffor intervened in an attempt to stop a crowd from damaging a Serb cultural centre which had been used as a mosque.

Some of the Mujahideen have moved to northern Bosnia, but others have legally purchased houses in Bocinja, where they are determined to remain.