Reactions do not subside after the statement by the Minister of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zukan Helez, that there are paramilitary camps on the territory of Republika Srpska. EUFOR said that they have not received any evidence or information that would confirm the minister’s allegations. Helez made a statement in the State Prosecutor’s Office, but what will happen if it turns out that his claims are false. Will the minister be held accountable for public nuisance?
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Defense Minister Zukan Helez’s claim that there are camps in Republika Srpska where paramilitary training is conducted with Russian instructors, and that members of the Republika Srpska police occasionally take part in it, further upset the BiH public. But for the security expert, politicians are not aware of the responsibility after the spoken word.
“After each of these statements, the ordinary citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, burdened by various daily reports, analyzes of politicians, various political and security analysts, and so on, can only ask themselves – does the Balkan powder keg have a bottom, in which we are deep at the bottom we find ourselves, and is there an end to this violence that we are exposed to every day? This greatly affects subjective security, with a tendency to turn into objective security, that the political crisis turns into a security crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”, says security expert Taib Spahic.
Minister Helez was heard as a witness at the State Prosecutor’s Office, and his findings will be the subject of further checks by the competent agencies, announced the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The question is whether the minister should have first shared the information with the law enforcement agencies, and only after the investigation should he have announced it to the public?
“I think that the judicial system is on its way to show its full competence, power and strength and to finally show that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a legal state, to reconsider all of this and to finally put an end to it.”
Apart from EUFOR, which announced that it does not have information or evidence that would confirm that there are paramilitary training camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, domestic institutions still have no reaction, Spahic added.
JAHJA MUHASILOVIĆ, international relations expert
“In essence, Minister Helez did not say anything new. What should happen is that the competent institutions that are in charge of checking it, really check it, and not make blanket statements within a day or two that such a threat does not exist”, said international relations expert Jahja Muhasilovic.
Helez made the claims about the existence of suspicious camps after Republika Srpska Police Minister Siniša Karan stated that there are between 100 and 120 “parajemats” operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, isolated communities of radical Islamic believers who could pose a security threat. Karan has not offered any evidence for his claims either.
Are there paramilitary Russian training camps in the RS – is a question that has opened up numerous controversies in our country. This thesis was presented by the Minister of Defense Zukan Helez, claiming that they are located, under surveillance and that they conduct exercises occasionally. It didn’t take long for the first reactions from the RS. Denials and counter-accusations. Nevertheless, regardless of the reactions, such warnings from the state minister of defense must certainly be taken seriously and investigated.
“It’s not a secret, people see it, the villages around Rogatica, people take pictures of it, in the middle of the day that there is an exercise there. I have pictures, I will show them on television… It’s not every day, they appear and then disappear. They practice with weapons, and we know where they got them from. It is put under some form to be legal, as part of the MUP of the RS, then it appears in another form, and as long as it is not dangerous for the state, there is no reaction. We have located it and are tracking it. I told that to people from the international community and of course they know,” said Helez.
The exercises are semi-legal, the number of participants varies, but they are located and monitored, Helez said, among other things. It did not take long for the first and very harsh reactions from the RS. These are dangerous lies, state political representatives from the RS, and add that earlier Helez’s allegations about the escape of Milorad Dodik from Bosnia and Herzegovina were also denied by the OSA.
“Whenever Zukan Helez has a crisis, he invents that he has some intelligence on Dodik that links Dodik to the Russians and which turns out to be a complete fabrication. These are notorious and heinous lies,” said Radovan Kovačević, a delegate in the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SNSD).
“Chairman Kristo’s mandate is to urgently convene a meeting of the Reporting and Intelligence Authority today, which will invite the management of the OSA to verify these allegations and say whether Helez is presenting information from the OSA, does it have such information or is it a dream of Minister Helez and taken over the narrative of those who want to complicate the political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, stated Staša Košarac, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Condemnation of Helez’s claims also comes from the National Assembly of Republika Srpska. The representatives of the entity government from the opposition agree that Minister Helez is telling the truth.
“I think that what Helez said has nothing to do with the truth, but I also think that the committee should discuss it and take positions,” said Vukota Govedarica, president of the Committee for Security in the NSRS.
A few days ago, representatives of the RS in the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina sent a letter to the US Senate and Congress in which they stated that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a haven for radical Islamists, and that there are villages in the Federation of BiH where Sharia law is implemented.
The Intelligence and Security Agency (OBA) of Bosnia and Herzegovina has no information about the existence of military camps and paramilitary formations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Srna was told in this agency.
The OBA stated that they forwarded the information on this to the chairperson of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Borjana Krišto.
“An answer was sent that there are no camps or any paramilitary formations,” answered Srni from OBA when asked if this agency forwarded information to Kristo about whether there are military camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina opened a case yesterday regarding the claims of the Minister of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zukan Helez, that there are Russian military training camps in the territory of Republika Srpska.
