Weapons in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are not hard to come by, especially illegal ones. This has been shown in practice, as much as 95% of criminal offenses are committed with unlicensed weapons. The black market is booming, and according to reports from international agencies, our country is one of the key countries for arms trafficking. The tragedies of recent days show that the security situation has not been up to par for a long time, and the authorities have not done much to improve the situation, which has been the same for 25 years.
How safe the citizens of BiH feel is best shown by the demand for firearms. During the last year in the Federation of BiH (FBiH), 9.959 licenses were issued for the purchase of firearms. In the Republika Srpska (RS), the numbers are smaller, but still significant – 3.933. However, a far bigger problem is the 750.000 pieces of illegal weapons that experts estimate exist in our country.
The authorities are trying to deal with this problem, so they seized 1.396 weapons in 2021, and 1.234 last year. The authorities are continuously working on the destruction of these weapons.
Despite the destruction and confiscation of weapons and the Strategy for Small Arms and Light Weapons Control, according to research, BiH is in 11th place when it comes to the number of weapons per hundred inhabitants. After the war, illegal weapons remained hidden in many households, and citizens find it difficult to give them up due to fear of a new conflict. Professor Armin Krzalic states that the authorities have not done much in the last three decades to solve the problem of illegal weapons.
“In this context, there are two directions in which it is possible to prevent and work on reducing the number of illegal weapons, the first direction is normative, legislative so that in a specific article in the criminal code where chemical and biological weapons are discussed, the abuse of illegal weapons can be added, and that this too can be sanctioned with a long prison sentence. Another direction is constant disarmament actions when we talk about illegal weapons”.
The legal framework at the state level does not exist, there are 12 laws divided into entities, i.e. cantons and Brcko District. Experts state that their basis is solid, but implementation is key.
Many agree that the punishments for illegal possession of weapons must be more specific and drastic, controls must be more frequent, and experts also say that campaigns for the surrender of illegal weapons must be more purposeful, as they have not been so far, N1 reports.
E.Dz.
