At the session of the Strategic Committee for Armaments, Ammunition and Explosive Mines of the Ministry of Defense of BiH, they discussed the realization of previous activities, the development of a security risk assessment of ammunition storage, and the challenges and future steps to solve this very important issue.
Support for the session was provided by OSCE, NATO and EUFOR. It was pointed out that defective ammunition is one of the problems faced by the members of the Strategic Committee and the line ministry. However, optimistically, they are satisfied with the process of dealing with defective ammunition, as well as with the storage of weapons.
“I want to emphasize that I am particularly proud of the projects that have been implemented on warehouse security, and I want to note that this will be one of our priorities in the coming period, in order to raise the level of security for all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Aleksandar Goganović, Deputy Minister of Defense of BiH.
General Gojko Knežević, member of the Strategic Committee and deputy chief of the Joint Staff for Resources, emphasized the key conclusion – that this process should continue: “It is not completely finished, work is still being done on even more secure storage of weapons, ammunition and mine-explosive means – that is not important only for Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is important for the region and globally”.
In the coming period, the priority is to complete the processes of dealing with surplus ammunition, especially defective ones. About 350 tons of ammunition will be destroyed, and so far this issue has mostly been resolved by demilitarization.
“We have to admit that we have quite old ammunition, ammunition of very different origins, bearing in mind everything that happened here in the nineties, we have ammunition from different parts of the world, of very questionable quality,” warns General Knežević.
Ammunition found to be correct but not needed by them will be sold. In this regard, a sales pilot project was launched, and a public invitation was published.
