The sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been violated, state representatives Jasmin Emrić and Džemil Smajić claim. The reason for this, they say, is that the competent institutions do not control the airspace of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that it is done by neighboring countries Serbia and Croatia instead of domestic institutions. They also doubt the existence of adequate radars. The relevant Minister of Transport and Communications, as well as the Minister of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, reacted.
Serious accusations are made by parliamentarians Džemal Smajić and Jasmin Emrić. Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have any functional primary radar. This means that anyone can enter the country’s airspace undetected, at any time. They suspect that it is precisely in this segment that state sovereignty has recently been violated.
“In the specific case of the flight of the helicopter of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, which entered BiH airspace on July 24 of the current year, made several flights in BiH airspace on July 25, and then returned to Serbia,” said Jasmin Emrić, NES representative. in PSBiH.
Emrić claims, he did not receive an explanation from the authorities, even though he requested it.
In December 2019, BHANSA boasted that it was fully taking control of Bosnia and Herzegovina. by the sky. Until then, flights above 10,000 meters were controlled by neighboring Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro.
“Remember the famous party from December 2019, where 299,350 BAM plus VAT was spent on the occasion of the so-called taking control of Bosnia and Herzegovina sky. In essence, it was manipulation, and since then, the implementation of the plan to control BiH began. leave the sky to Belgrade and Zagreb”, said Džemal Smajić, a delegate in the House of Peoples of BiH (SBiH).
What worries state parliamentarians, as they claim, is that Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have functional primary radars, which alone can provide adequate data. They claim that Serbia and Croatia are doing this work for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“As for civilian coverage and the story of how we pay Croatia and Serbia for coverage, this is a matter called civilian control, which is fully coordinated with Eurocontrol, which is in Brussels,” said Edin Forto, Minister of Transport and Communications of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The line minister also announced that BHANSA will invest an additional 15 million marks in the radar infrastructure in the coming period. While parliamentarians Smajić and Emrić are wondering, what has 500 million marks been invested in so far?
“If there are some pockets that are currently covered by some radars from neighboring countries, which is a completely normal practice, how would that also be covered,” adds Forto.
What the Ministry of Defense recently boasted about is that they are exchanging information with BHANS for the first time. The center, which is on the premises of the Ministry, cannot be recorded due to data secrecy, but the minister invited all experts, interested people, who do not believe that BiH. but controls, so that they come and see for themselves.
“Every plane, every aircraft of any kind that enters Bosnia and Herzegovina, we in the Ministry of Defense, in our Center, see it and fully monitor the sky. We are in the stage of agreement with the United States of America to get two primary radars, which are very expensive and to fully control the entire picture of the sky, not related to civilian radars”, said Zukan Helez, Minister of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In 2020, the state representative, Saša Magazinović, received an answer from the Council of Ministers at the time that, through the parliamentary question “is it true that Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have a radar that can control the airspace,” that it is not true. Recently, he again asked the authorities who is in the chain of control of Bosnia and Herzegovina. of the sky, and whether the acquisition of radar is planned, but there is no answer to date, N1 reports.
