The way in which the Court and Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina destroy the credibility and waste resources on the persecution of political enemies has weakened the country’s ability to respond to terrorist threats in the country and the region, reads the latest report Republika Srpska submitted to the UN Security Council.
“Abuse of prosecutorial competencies and those of the State Investigation and Protection Agency undermines the trust and cooperation between the authorities at the level of cantons, entities and the state, which is desperately needed for the struggle against the threat posed by the returnees from Syria, Iraq and other regions. A big number of BiH citizens given the size of the population has joined the terrorist organisations fighting together with Al-Qaida and Islamic State,” reads the report.
Warning against a major threat of terrorist actions, Republika Srpska underlines in its 15th report to the UNSC that the Bosniak political and security authorities very slowly and reluctantly recognise the need to pay attention to the threat.
The report recalls that in March 2016, the BiH Court sentenced a person who had fought for the Islamic State to only 12 months in prison or, alternatively, fined him.
“Such an impertinently mild sentence carries no significance in light of the severity of the crime and does not advise BiH citizens against joining the Islamic State /or other jihadist organisations/, who return to Europe as a major terrorist threat,” notes the report.
During a recent press conference, reads the report, an expert on terrorist organisations in the Balkans asserted that the BiH authorities had made omissions in monitoring the accomplices of suspected and known extremists.
“The recent attacks in Paris and Brussels clearly prove that BiH is at risk over its soft policy towards radical groups, such as the one that had planned and carried out an attack on the US Embassy in Sarajevo. It is also well known that terrorists with connections in BiH were involved in the terrorist attacks in Europe and the United States,” reads the latest Republika Srpska report to the UN Security Council.
Source: SRNA
