FORTO ACTS AS A FLOW-THROUGH BOILER Smajić and Emrić: Bosnia and Herzegovina has lost control of its airspace

(Patria) - Džemal Smajić, delegate of the Party for BiH in the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Jasmin Emrić, deputy of NES in the House of Representatives of BiH, spoke today at a joint press conference about the protection of our country's sovereignty in the airspace.

Smajić believes that the issue of control over Bosnia and Herzegovina's skies and the protection of the sovereignty of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the airspace has been ongoing for 28 years.

When it comes to taking over control of the skies, Smajić says it was a manipulation.

– In essence, it was a manipulation of citizens, and from then on, the implementation of the plan to completely hand over control of BiH's skies to Belgrade and Zagreb began," is the view of the SBiH delegate in the state parliament.

He pointed out that, according to European standards, air traffic surveillance in Europe requires coverage with two secondary and one primary radar in terminal areas.

– The main radar is the primary one, and these secondary radars serve as auxiliary radars. If a country does not possess a primary radar, it means, in translation, that it does not have control over its airspace above its territory – Smajić stated.

According to him, “the final act of losing control of BiH's skies occurred when the General Director of the Directorate for Civil Aviation of BiH, Čedomir Šušnjar, signed a decision to withdraw the primary radar from use, acting upon the request of the Agency for the Provision of Air Navigation Services of BiH, represented by Director Davorin Primarac.”

– At that time, I addressed the Council of Ministers and the competent Ministry of Transport and Communications, where I requested clarification on the measures and activities undertaken by Minister Edin Forto to prevent the withdrawal of the primary radar Sarajevo from operational use and thus protect the sovereignty of the state of BiH in the airspace. From the responses I received, it is evident that the minister did not take any measures or activities to prevent the withdrawal of the primary radar from use.

From the responses, it could be concluded that the fact was confirmed that Minister Forto does not implement policy in the field of civil aviation in accordance with the law, has no vision for the development of air traffic control and civil aviation, but, unfortunately, serves as a flow-through boiler for the realization of coordinated activities aimed at breaking BiH's sovereignty in the airspace by Agency Director Davorin Primorac and Directorate for Civil Aviation Director Čedomir Šušnjar – Smajić assessed.

Therefore, he added, it is no wonder that even after 28 years “we do not control our skies and thus do not achieve our full sovereignty in the airspace.”

– First and foremost, this is about the security situation of the state of BiH. If we do not have a primary radar, which has been shut down and was located at Sarajevo International Airport, civil protection has no basis on which to warn civilians to take shelter if there are any hostile activities from the air. That means we do not have the instruments to monitor what is happening in the sky above BiH – Smajić asserted.

Smajić claims that BiH had three radars.

- One, as I already said, is the shut-down primary radar at Sarajevo International Airport. This secondary, second radar on Jahorina is very often out of order. We have a third secondary radar at Sarajevo airport, for which relocation to the Bukovik location above Sarajevo has begun, which has no access road infrastructure at all, and which will not be safely accessible for more than six months a year, during the winter period. Access to the radar must be enabled in every season and at any time of day and night so that the radar can be serviced – Smajić stated.

He posed the question of why Minister Forto allows all this, “if we know that for major airports, it is necessary to ensure radar control and an image with two secondary radars and one primary radar, in order to provide a safe flight control service, as is the case in the region.”

– The question of all questions is why the BiH radar system was not renewed, but was instead degraded to complete non-functionality, while, for example, the budgets of neighboring countries were filled for the use of their equipment. All of this points to a major scandal, where neighboring countries use Minister Forto for their own interests, while the uninformed minister undermines the security of BiH – Smajić said, and also posed the question of why this primary radar was not handed over to the Ministry of Defense of BiH, but was shut down.

Emrić said that he also problematized the control of airspace in BiH, specifically the case of the flight of a helicopter of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, which entered BiH airspace on July 24 this year, made several flights in BiH airspace on July 25, and then returned to the Republic of Serbia.

– Seeking answers from the competent ministries and institutions in BiH, I wanted this case to be clarified so that everyone would know whether there was a violation of BiH airspace by a state aircraft of the Republic of Serbia, and whether flight procedures were violated in accordance with the Rulebook on Flight Approval and in accordance with the Law on Aviation of BiH – Emrić said.

He added that, unfortunately, he did not receive an answer from the competent institutions.

– Therefore, a group of deputies in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH submitted an interpellation related to this topic and this specific case of the flight of a state aircraft of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia in the airspace of BiH. We opened a discussion on this topic and proposed several concrete conclusions – Emrić stated.

One of the conclusions is to call on the Prosecutor's Office of BiH to conduct an investigation and determine whether there was a violation of the Law on Aviation of BiH and the Rulebook on Flight Approval.