Fury over Bosnian town built by Middle East investors which has Arabic as its 'official' language - and locals can only enter if they work as servants

  • 160 homes near Tarcin, Bosnia are owned exclusively by Kuwaiti investors
  • Locals claim are only allowed in if they are hired as cleaners or servants
  • The houses, marketed only in Kuwait, are being sold for 150,000 euros

By Mail Online Reporter

Published: | Updated:

Angry locals are protesting about a Bosnian town built by Middle Eastern investors which has Arabic as its 'official' language - and where locals can only enter if they work as servants.

The 160 homes have been constructed in a luxury enclave near Tarcin, five miles west of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.

But furious locals say that their only way of accessing the area is through being hired as servants or cleaners - and claim most of the homes contain the wives of wealthy businessmen.

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Most of the homes have been sold to wealthy sheikhs from Kuwait

Most of the homes have been sold to wealthy sheikhs from Kuwait

The houses - marketed only in Kuwait - are being sold for 150,000 euros (£133,000).

Adverts for the estate call Bosnia a Muslim country 'gifted with beautiful nature by Allah.'

Bosnia-Herzegovina was racked by a sectarian civil war 20 years ago when the Muslim Bosnians - who converted to Islam during the rule of the Ottoman Empire - clashed with ethnic Serbs and ethnic Croats.

Nearly 60,000 people died, including 8,000 Muslim Bosniaks slaughtered by the Serbs at Srebrenica. 

The idyllic community has been built by Middle East investors around an artificial lake

The idyllic community has been built by Middle East investors around an artificial lake

The complex is surrounded by heavy security, gates and high walls. 

It was also reported that some women stay there all year round with their children, while their husbands are only occasional visitors.

One estate worker told local media: 'The owners do not want to mix with the local population.

'They have their own traditions when it comes to clothing, behaviour and prayer, and do not want people staring at them.'

The community has its own mosque and the residents do not mix with local Bosnians

The community has its own mosque and the residents do not mix with local Bosnians

Now developers are reportedly planning to double the size of the private village.

Local media have complained to regional officials that it is unlawful for a foreign power to be able to buy up parts of the country and ban locals from entering it.

Some locals have begun a protest campaign with leaflets featuring women in burkas with the message: 'Go Away.'

One local pharmacist agreed: 'We are Muslim, but we are praying at home and in mosques, and we are a secular state. They are different from us.'

Locals say many of the women live in the community all year round with their children while their husbands visit only occasionally

Locals say many of the women live in the community all year round with their children while their husbands visit only occasionally

The community near Tarcin is in a beautiful spot although it gets very cold in winter

The community near Tarcin is in a beautiful spot although it gets very cold in winter

The news of the Arabic village follows on from revelations last year that ISIS militants had established a stronghold in a picturesque village, Osve, where everyone is 'ready to respond to the summons to jihad.'

Militant Islam was all but unknown to Bosnia's mostly secular Muslim population until the Balkans wars in the 1990s when Arab mercenaries turned up to help the outgunned Bosnian Muslims fend off Serb attacks.

These fighters, many of whom settled in Bosnia, embraced a radical version of Islam that Bosnia's indigenous Islamic community opposes.

 

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