Commission seeks answers from Mo BiH: Who stole pistols from military warehouse in Pazarić

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Members of the Joint Commission for Defense and Security of the BiH Parliament will be on a working visit to the Ministry of Defense of BiH today, where they will meet with the Minister of Defense of BiH Sifet Podžić, his deputies, and other high-ranking representatives of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of BiH.

The meeting will be held at the BiH Armed Forces Hall in Sarajevo starting at 11:00 AM. As announced by the Mo BiH, the meeting will discuss the current situation in the defense sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the theft of military weapons from the Basic Training Center in Pazarić, where a shortage of 25 pistols was discovered on February 11.

"In accordance with prescribed procedures and responsibilities, the BiH Armed Forces Military Police visited the site and informed the competent internal affairs authority, the BiH Prosecutor's Office, and at whose order the Agency for Investigations and Protection (SIPA) was engaged. Also, in accordance with procedures, an extraordinary inventory was carried out, with the presence of the aforementioned authorities, during which the shortage of a certain quantity of small arms was determined," the Mo BiH announced on February 12. The BiH Prosecutor's Office could not provide more information, except that an investigation was conducted.

The Deputy Chairwoman of the Joint Commission for Defense and Security of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dušanka Majkić (SNSD), stated on Tuesday that the disappearance of weapons from the Basic Training Center Pazarić of the Armed Forces of BiH represents a new security challenge.

"If we consider that there were ten such cases from 2007 to 2017, then this is a frequently recurring case for which the institution responsible for security must provide an answer," Majkić stated.

She states that the question also arises as to how it is possible that the person who entered the warehouse knew exactly where the pistols were located, which were in a box, and the box was in a safe.

"How could they know what it was about. Was it done by someone from the Armed Forces, or was it done by someone in collusion with someone from the Armed Forces. We hope that the Mo BiH will be able to answer these questions," Majkić asked.

She expressed suspicion that these pistols could end up with migrants moving through BiH.