At the beginning of next year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska (RS) intends to procure 1.044 automatic rifles and two “Gavran” (Raven) drones.
This was mentioned in the “confidential” document of the RS Ministry of the Internal Affairs, which refers to the public procurement plan for 2022.
“It is planned to purchase 600 automatic rifles for special police forces and 444 long barrels for members of the Gendarmerie,” the interlocutor told.
The same sources pointed out that the RS Ministry of the Internal Affairs also reserved two “Gavran” drones, which areproduced in Serbia, at the recently held International Fair of Arms and Military Equipment “Partner 2021” in Belgrade.
The Minister of Internal Affairs of the RS, Dragan Lukac, also attended the fair in Belgrade on October 13th this year.
But let’s get back to the procurement of automatic weapons. The RS Ministry of the Internal Affairs, as it was stated at the beginning of the text, plans to procure 1.044 automatic rifles for the needs of the Special Unit of the RS Ministry of the Internal Affairs and the Gendarmerie, a police unit that was established in September 2019. During the formation of the Gendarmerie, RS leaders said that the police unit would act as a unit for support in crisis situations, major actions in maintaining security, but also “be mobile and act in various challenges.”
In February 2020, the Gendarmerie took over the armored vehicles that had been part of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit of the RS Ministry of the Internal Affairs.
“Four armored combat vehicles were handed over between the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit and the Gendarmerie Unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RS at the Training Center in Zaluzani on Thursday. These armored vehicles will be on duty in the gendarmerie units in the Istocno Sarajevo, Zvornik, Doboj, and Prijedor police administrations. The Gendarmerie members will use these vehicles in performing their jobs and tasks, ” it was announced by the RS Ministry of the Internal Affairs on February 21st last year.
Before the RS Ministry of the Internal Affairs was formed, in the fall of 2017, a procedure was initiated for the procurement of 2.500 automatic rifles.
After the story went public, this procurement was suspended.The RS Ministry of the Internal Affairs then established the Gendarmerie and initiated the process of arming that unit. In December last year, the Technical Overhaul Bratunac ordered “remote-controlled combat stations” of 12.7 and 7.62 millimeters caliber from South Africa for the needs of the RS Ministry of the Internal Affairs. This means that the RS Ministry of the Internal Affairs intends to buy a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun to install it on the DESPOT armored vehicle, Radio Sarajevo writes.
E.Dz.
Source: Istraga
