State Department Report: BiH Continues Fight Against Terrorism

SARAJevo, (Patria) - In its regular report on the fight against terrorism worldwide, the US State Department assessed Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country that continued to cooperate with Western partners in the fight against terrorism in 2017, but loopholes in the law and lenient court sentencing policies remain challenges that need to be addressed.

According to their report, interpersonal and inter-regional disputes continue to undermine effective cooperation between relevant institutions in this field, N1 reports.

Extremist ideology and regional nationalist extremist groups still represent a potential source of terrorism in the country. They note that BiH has done very little in terms of rehabilitation and deradicalization of individuals.

- At the state level, Bosnia and Herzegovina did not adopt any new laws in the field of counter-terrorism in 2017, while the entity Republika Srpska adopted a new criminal code that addresses acts of terrorism in accordance with international standards and criminalizes membership in foreign paramilitary and para-police forces - the report states.

At the state level, BiH has laws prohibiting membership in paramilitary and para-police organizations, but, in their opinion, the sentencing policy for these offenses remains one of the main challenges.

Fighters in foreign terrorist organizations are often given sentences below the minimum penalties prescribed by law. The reason for this is the fact that judges very often take mitigating circumstances into account when making decisions.

- Although in 2017 the Ministry of Justice of BiH proposed a series of amendments to strengthen the fight against terrorism, there was no political will to adopt these amendments, nor did the Ministry of Justice itself strive to secure a majority that would adopt these amendments.

The working group of the Ministry of Security was also in the preliminary phase of adopting comprehensive amendments to the Criminal Code of BiH that would address this issue, but for this too, there was no political will to continue with the work, given that the election campaign for the general elections in October 2017 had begun.

The State Department also commented on the work of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), stating that only 25 SIPA members work on counter-terrorism cases, and assessed their effectiveness as very limited.

- Law enforcement cooperation continued to suffer due to interpersonal and inter-institutional squabbles. The state prosecutor's operational group met only twice in 2017, and public disagreements between the acting Chief Prosecutor of BiH, the Minister of Security, and SIPA management continue to undermine strategic progress in the fight against terrorism - the report states.

They also emphasized that since 2016, BiH has not made any significant progress in securing its borders, but added that in 2017, BiH continued its fight against terrorism and terrorist activities in the country.

The report also touched upon the main religious communities in BiH, stating that the Catholic, Islamic, Jewish, and Orthodox communities in BiH continued to cooperate through the Interreligious Council in promoting tolerance and combating religious intolerance or violence against any of these individual communities.