By Danilo Krstanovic

ZENICA, Bosnia, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Several thousand Muslim ex-fighters and their supporters protested on Saturday against a Bosnian government plan to start deporting foreign volunteers who stayed in the country after the 1992-95 war.

Thousands of fighters from the Middle East and Africa arrived in Bosnia to fight alongside Bosnian Muslims against Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats. Most left after the war but hundreds stayed on after marrying local women.

The protest was organised under the slogan "Forgive Us, Hamza" in the central town of Zenica, where most of the ex-mujahideen live, ahead of the expected deportation next week of their informal leader Imad Al Husayn, known as Abu Hamza.

"We organised this meeting as a protest against his deportation and the only support we can extend to Hamza," said Aiman Awad, one of the organisers.

Former fighters and their Bosnian wartime comrades spoke of courage on the battlefields and the hypocrisy of authorities who now wanted to get rid of them under pressure from the West.

Under pressure from its ally the United States, Bosnia has revoked over the past two years more than 600 of the 1,300 citizenships awarded to foreigners from a wide range of countries during and after the war.

Most are expected to appeal and may be allowed to remain, but dozens are set to be deported because the government has said they represent threats to national security. The first ex-fighter, Algerian-born Atau Mimun, was deported in December.

Many Bosnians of all faiths view volunteers who live in strict Islamic communities with suspicion and fearing they want to impose their strict religious practices on the traditionally moderate Bosnian Muslims.

Hamza, who has a Bosnian wife and six children, must leave by Wednesday or face forced deportation.

Authorities call him a threat to national security, a label he said might cause him much harm once he returns to his native Syria, where he may be tried for fighting in a foreign country.

Human rights groups called on Bosnia last year not to deport ex-fighters if they may face rights abuses. The European Court for Human Rights issued a ban this week on Hamza's deportation until the Constitutional Court can rule on his new appeal. (Writing by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Michael Winfrey)