A story published by The Independent which says that Bosnian arms have ended up in the hands of the Al Qaeda in Syria seems like an article that was commissioned by somebody, the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Defence and Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sifet Podzic, told N1.

A story published about Bosnian produced arms ending up in the hands of terrorists via Saudi Arabia has caused a stir among Bosnian officials.  

“Five-hundred mortars is a massive shipment of weapons – most European armies don’t have that many in their individual inventories – and some of them at least appear to have ended up in the hands of Bashar al-Assad’s Islamist Nusrah Front/al-Qaeda enemies in northern Syria within six months of their dispatch from Bosnia 1,200 miles away,” The Independent’s Robert Fisk wrote.  

In his article, Fisk also said that he found documents in Syria which contain signatures of a Bosnian who signed of on the shipment. He wrote that he interviewed the person, who confirmed it was his signature.

“To be honest, to me this seems like an article that was commissioned by someone,” Podzic said.  

He said it was possible that the president of Republika Srpska (RS), Bosnia’s Serb-dominated semi-autonomous entity, Milorad Dodik, or even Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic may be the ones to commissioned it.  

As a small country, Bosnia found itself a victim of geopolitical developments, Podzic said.  

“Realistically, it is very possible that mortars produced by BNT (an arms producer in Bosnia) emerged in Aleppo. That could not have been done legally,” Podzic said.  

The House of Representatives had in 2016 adopted a law on monitoring and controlling the arms trade, according to which half of the representatives in the Council of Ministers have to agree to an arms export, Podzic explained. 

“The Security Ministry, Foreign Affairs Ministry, Defence Ministry, and at the end the Trade and Economic Relations Ministry have to approve an export after all the other ministries have already approved it. The most important thing is the end user and the international certificate,” he said.  

“If Saudi Arabia ordered 500 mortars, then they are the end user. What happens with the arms after that is the responsibility of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” he said.  

“It is not necessary to raise tensions regarding this, but if anyone from the Commission asks, we can ask for these reports from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations,” he said, adding that this type of documentation must be kept for at least ten years.  

Podzic also commented on media speculations stating that Russia is arming certain groups in Republika Srpska.  

“I would not raise this to such a level, but it is true that there is involvement from Russia and Russian influence. I think this is not as alarming as it is sometimes portrayed,” he said.  

“In light of the security issue, we have too many arms anyway on Bosnian territory. We have about 20,000 tonnes that we need to destroy,” he said.