The institutions of Serbia still do not explain on what basis the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade claims that the weapons that were used in the attack on the Kosovo police in Banjska on September 24th, during which a Kosovo policeman was killed, arrived from Tuzla.
However, security and military armament experts in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) say that these weapons could not have been purchased legally or illegally in BiH.
What do the institutions of Serbia and BiH say?
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia did not respond to the inquiry about whether they have information about whether weapons were transferred across the border between Serbia and BiH and further from Belgrade to the territory of Kosovo, and whether they are investigating these claims.
The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade did not respond to the question of whether there is evidence that weapons were acquired in Tuzla, what kind of evidence they have on that matter, and who helped Radoicic in that and further transport.
In the meantime, the police of the entity Federation of BiH (FBiH) have announced an investigation, explaining that they will seek information and evidence from the Belgrade prosecutor’s office about the entire case.
Director of the Federal Police Administration, Vahidin Munjic, said that meetings are underway with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Tuzla Canton (TC), among other things, about the allegations from Belgrade.
“We don’t know anything at the moment. No one from Belgrade has officially requested checks. We have started the processes to carry out the necessary checks,” Munjic said.
What do the experts in BiH say?
Berko Zecevic, a Sarajevo professor at the Department of Defense Technology and forensic ballistics expert, says that he has carefully analyzed all the photos of confiscated weapons published by the Kosovo police.
He states that it is clear from the markings on the weapons that they were manufactured in factories in Serbia.
At the same time, he evaluates the allegations of the Belgrade prosecutor’s office that the weapons came from BiH as “a typical method of gray propaganda or a hybrid war, with the aim of redirecting the seriousness of relations between Serbia and Kosovo, to BiH”.
Moreover, even Selmo Cikotic, who held the position of Minister of Defense and Minister of Security of BiH, agrees with the assessment that there is no basis for the claim that weapons arrived in Kosovo from BiH.
“This is pure speculation, and I see that investigations have been ordered, although the prosecution in Belgrade has not offered any evidence to confirm this. We need to wait until it is officially confirmed or denied, but I think that here they are trying to involve BiH in this story in a very dirty way, and I also think that we should not fall for it,” he adds, Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
