Zukan Helez, Minister of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina), told Radio Free Europe (RSE) that there are military training camps in the area of Rogatica, in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in the area of Mount Maglić, which he claims to own and photographs.
“It’s no 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 it on television,” Helez said, adding that “he must not send photos that document the existence of military camps”.
Helez previously stated this in a guest appearance on N1 television on Wednesday evening, November 22, stating that it was “about some young people and some people from Russia”, not wanting to say who he got the information from.
A day later, on November 23, Staša Košarac, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Union of Independent Social Democrats Milorad Dodik) reacted, asking the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Borjana Krišto, to “as soon as possible convene an emergency session of the Executive Intelligence Committee regarding the allegations of the Minister of Defense Zukan Helez on the existence of military training camps and paramilitary formations on the territory of the Republika Srpska”.
“It is extremely dangerous when the Minister of Defense, without any evidence, publicly makes such claims against Republika Srpska. It can be characterized as inciting national intolerance and fear. With such actions, he does not contribute to the stabilization of the situation in BiH at all,” Košarac told the news agency.
On November 12, a group of representatives of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who come from the Republika Srpska entity, wrote to the American Congress and the European Parliament, stating that Bosnia and Herzegovina “has long been a haven for radical Islamists.”
Three days later, a letter was sent to the same address by a group of deputies from the Parliament of BiH, who are from the Federation of BiH entity, in which they stated “that the biggest threat to peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina is not the invented ‘religious radicalism’, but the actions and actions of SNSD officials.” – and most of whom, led by Milorad Dodik, are on the blacklist of the USA and Great Britain”.
The ruling coalition at the state level consists of the Social Democratic Party of BiH, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, the Croatian Democratic Union of BiH, Our Party and Narod i Pravda, Slobodna Evropa reports.
