Kico: Hybrid action is bombarding with fabricated facts and offering solutions that no one can prove in reality!

(Patria) - Professor Ahmed Kico at today's session of Circle 99, where the topic was 'Countering hybrid action against the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina', explained why he believes that a hybrid war has long been waged against Bosnia and Herzegovina and highlighted what he considers to be the goals of this war.

According to him, hybrid warfare has been current in the last 15 or so years in Europe and the world and is important because in the sphere of communications and thinking, efforts are made to make the attacked side start thinking in a way that suits the attacker.

"It is a strategy that combines kinetic and non-kinetic forces, military and non-military methods that undermine the constitutional order. Thus, it can be said that Bosnia and Herzegovina has been a target of hybrid action, from both the East and the West, since the Dayton Peace Agreement," he adds.

Kico noted that this has been particularly intensified in the last 10 or 12 years, when Serbia and Croatia again put Bosnia and Herzegovina in their focus. He claims that Russia is behind the hybrid war against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"In the last 15 or so years, all key institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been attacked and are still under attack. This refers to the judiciary, identity, language. One of the key targets are the goals and practices advocated by Bosnian Franciscans. Everything that has a Bosnian character is a target of hybrid operations that primarily occur on the orders of the Russian Federation and are carried out by structures from Serbia and the RS," he emphasized.

As he said, since Russia's aggression against Ukraine, there has been a stronger blow against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"You remember that after the beginning of that aggression, it was indeed very seriously considered that, in order to divert world attention (from the war in Ukraine), a crisis should be produced in the Western Balkans. This is happening on the orders of Russia," he adds.

He stated that Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite everything, has the strength to take measures to identify these attacks. As an example of hybrid warfare, he cited the issue of changes to the Election Law.

"You see that under the mantra of changes to the Election Law, an attempt is being made to create a sense of threat among the population and that the Election Law should be made exclusively to the measure of the HDZ. Hybrid action is bombarding with fabricated facts and offering solutions that no one can prove in reality," Kico believes.

To combat hybrid action, he proposed forming a special department within the Intelligence-Security Agency (OSA) that would deal with this issue and strengthening security forces in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"In order for Bosnia and Herzegovina and its institutions of the political and security system to be able to counter hybrid war, it is necessary to immediately form, within the Intelligence-Security Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a Department for Countering Hybrid Operations, modeled on the EU. That Department would include professional analysts and experts from the OSA BiH, people from the academic community dealing with security, professionals from SIPA, the Border Police and other law enforcement agencies.

The Department would continuously analyze hybrid threats coming from neighboring and other countries, threats appearing within the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Based on professional and expert analyses, analytical information and assessments would be compiled and submitted to the Presidency of BiH, the Council of Ministers of BiH, relevant ministries and law enforcement agencies, in order to take timely and adequate measures and actions to suppress and eliminate hybrid and other threats to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina," said Kico.