The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is hearing witnesses in connection with the information presented a month ago by the Minister of Defense of BiH Zukan Helez about the existence of military camps in which there are also persons from Russia on the territory of the Republika Srpska (RS) entity.
The minister said in November that he has evidence for the claims that there are military training camps in the area of Rogatica, in eastern BiH, and in the area of the mountain Maglic, of which he claims to have photographs. He has not yet published the evidence.
‘Security challenges that do not stand and do not exist?’
Minister Helez shared the allegations about military camps after numerous speculations about sleeper terrorists in BiH, active terrorist cells, threats to security, raising security measures to the highest level and claims that there are a hundred parajemats in BiH, isolated locations where locals practice Islam outside the system Islamic Community in BiH.
Most of these claims came from officials in the Republika Srpska (RS), that is, from political representatives from the RS stated in a letter to the United States (U.S.) Senate and Congress in November that parts of BiH, mainly the entity Federation of BiH (FBiH), “are still home to numerous sleeper cells Al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State.”
A professor at the Faculty of Criminalistics, Criminology, and Security Studies and an expert at the Center for Security Studies in Sarajevo says that “certain security challenges are being securitized in BiH which objectively do not stand and do not exist”.
Have there been any terrorist incidents in BiH in recent years?
In the last few years, no terrorist attacks have been recorded in BiH.
The report of the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (EUROPOL) for 2022 states that there are incentives for radicalization in the countries of the Western Balkans, due to the complexity of issues of identity and religion, as well as socioeconomic conditions and high unemployment rates.
The State Department’s latest report on terrorism in BiH, published in November 2023, states that, although BiH is a cooperative partner in the fight against terrorism, its capacities are still limited and little progress has been made. The return of BiH citizens from Syria and Iraq, about a hundred of them, is cited as a challenge.
It was also pointed out that there were no reported terrorist incidents. Violent extremist ideology and violent regional nationalist groups remain potential sources of terrorism in BiH.
It is stated that in 2022, the political crisis in the country brought an unprecedented divisive rhetoric of ethno-nationalist political leaders in the country, according to the report of the State Department, Slobodna Evropa writes.
E.Dz.
