The Minister of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zukan Helez, was heard today in front of the prosecutor from the Department for Terrorism of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina in connection with his statement about the alleged existence of military camps and paramilitary formations on the territory of Republika Srpska.
“Witness Helez presented his findings, which will be the subject of further verification by the competent agencies, and after the activities have been completed, the public will be informed,” announced the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH.
The Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina should discuss allegations of the existence of terrorist cells and Russian camps in the country.
Chairman of the Presidency Željko Komšić said earlier that official information about this will be requested from the competent authorities.
“From those who brought it up and from the Intelligence and Security Agency, which is obliged to know about it and monitor and report it to the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Komšić said, stressing that everything that is presented in this sense “must be based on facts.
BiH Defense Minister Zukan Helez stated that there are military training camps in the area of Rogatica and the Maglić Mountain in eastern Bosnia, of which he claims to have photographs. Helez first made the allegations about military camps in the RS as a guest 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 from whom he got the information.
Due to his statement about the existence of military camps, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has opened a case in the Department for Terrorism, in which the Minister of Defense will be invited to testify.
Staša Košarac, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, Milorad Dodik, asked on September 23 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 Helez’s allegations”.
Ramo Isak, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, spoke to N1 about the security situation in BiH, especially when it comes to increasing the level of security due to the situation in the Middle East. Isak also criticized the Italian intelligence service.
Isak explained that the security level was raised due to the escalation of violence between Israel and Palestine.
“Of course it’s a precaution. There is no information that something will happen,” he said.
He also spoke in more detail about how it will look on the field.
“The number of officers in certain places and locations is increasing. It is a physical way of security. We have other ways and they are operational. Certain institutions are visited, certain data are obtained, certain inspections are carried out at certain locations,” Isak pointed out.
After the Italian media announced that the local intelligence service has information that 20 terrorist cells are active in our area, including BiH, Isak says that this information is incorrect and that citizens can sleep peacefully, because, as he states, the security situation is satisfactory.
“It is not true, they are telling lies. Our services work professionally. I will ask their intelligence services to come to us for training, for our people to train them and to start doing their job well,” Isak pointed out.
Isak repeated that if the judicial authorities order the security structures in FBiH to be operational to arrest Dodik, it will be done.
