Bosna and Herzegovina remained a cooperative country in the fight against terrorism and during 2015 it continued progressing and increasing its capacity in that field. This was stated in the latest report of the US State Department on the fight against terrorism for the past year, published by the US Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington.
In this report by the US Government, BiH is also mentioned in the introduction as a positive example of a country which adopted national strategies for the fight against terrorism, together with Sweden, Great Britain, Albania, Macedonia…
In a separate part of the report, also mentioned is the role of religious communities in BiH which continuously work on the promotion of tolerance and the prevention of hatred among religious communities, as well as the prevention of violent extremism.
However, especially highlighted was the role of the Reis Husein Effendi Kavazović and it was stated that he is the one who keeps talking publically against wrong interpretations of Islam. Moreover, it was stated that upon his invitation 37 political, religious and cultural representatives of Bosniaks, including leaders of two most powerful Bosniak parties Bakir Izetbegović and Fahrudin Radončić, condemned terrorism with a joint statement and invited Muslims to follow the “middle path” in Islam. It was stated further that BiH agencies for law enforcement are keeping good trace of those for whom it is suspected that they have already been on battlefields within terrorist organizations, and that various operations against them are successfully being executed.
On the ministerial level, there is a Task Force for fight against terrorism which has a task of improving coordination between different security and police agencies. However, the extreme Islamist and nationalist ideology remained the potential source of violent extremism in BiH, it was stated in the report. In the second part of the report, it was stated that a significant number of BiH citizens left to Syria and Iraq, where they supported ISIL or some other terrorist organization. According to estimations, about 300 citizens of BiH left and abou 50 returned.
Legal and social endeavors to prevent the violent extremism are credited for the decrease in the number of those who leave for foreign battlefields to fight in terrorist organizations, the report stated. It is also stated that BiH was the first to adopt the strategy for fight against terrorism in the Balkans region. However, problems frequently arise in its implementation due to, as stated, personal, political or institutional competition that exists between police agencies and between the Court and the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH. Nevertheless, it is still highlighted that BiH executed an action in November 2014 when 34 people were arrested, 18 of which were processed, and the case of Bilal Bosnić was brought up, who is sentenced to prison for recruiting foreign fighters.
The report also reminds of two terrorist attacks, in Zvornik and Rajlovac, when one police officer and two members of the Armed Forces of BiH were killed. Along with a short description of the events, it was stated that perpetrators are radicalized individuals and that in the case of the terrorist from Rajlovac police found in his house the evidence which connects him with the ISIL.
(Source: vijesti.ba/photo: faktor.ba)
