Prof. Ahatović: Attacking the Armed Forces diminishes BiH's power in the fight against terrorism

The military intelligence sector or military intelligence service in all armed forces represents an apparatus for collecting information, analyzing, and assessing the situation regarding all aspects of security challenges for a country, says military commentator and analyst prof. Nedžad Ahatović, writes the Patria News Agency.

Member of the Joint Defense and Security Commission of the BiH Parliament Dušanka Majkić told Glas Srpske that there is no need for the military intelligence sector to deal with citizens' security matters.

- They themselves admit in the letter that they are considering the increasing number of security challenges and threats to the general security of citizens. The intelligence-security affairs sector of the Ministry of Defense has nothing to do with it, because it is not its jurisdiction, but OSA's. And OSA works in the interest of only one nation, and creating another such agency within the Ministry of Defense would be too much - said Majkić.

She emphasizes that the jurisdiction of the Intelligence-Security Affairs Sector relates only to the barracks area, and that it has about 200 people, which is too many.

- If its jurisdiction is not expanded, this sector will be completely unnecessary, and those working on creating the defense review will exclude it from the Ministry of Defense. In order to preserve the position of this sector, they plan to expand its jurisdiction - claims Majkić, adding that such a change was attempted in 2011, but was thwarted by Serb MPs.

Professor Ahatović has a completely different opinion and believes that this is a direct undermining of the defense power of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

- If the BiH Ministry of Defense wants to expand the jurisdiction of this service, which is currently at the battalion level within the Armed Forces of BiH, through a parliamentary procedure, then it is a completely legitimate process in which the proposers had in mind the terrorist threats in BiH, which are mostly operationally monitored through communication channels and social networks.

With parliamentary control, which is advocated for by the BiH Ministry of Defense, because the procedure follows the approval of the BiH Parliament and the Defense and Security Commission itself, I personally see no reason why a segment of the BiH Armed Forces should not be involved in monitoring and analyzing all security threats to BiH, whether they are internal or external.

I am surprised by the stance of Ms. Majkić, a respected representative who is known as a uncompromising fighter against terrorism, who opposes giving a greater role to the Military Intelligence Battalion of the BiH Armed Forces.

I hope her concern is not aimed at diminishing the capacity for actively leading the fight against terrorism against all extremisms in BiH, which, in addition to members of the Wahhabi movement returning from the Syrian battlefield, can freely include the 30,000 registered members of the Ravna Gora Chetnik Movement of RS.

Precisely in that segment, the Military Intelligence Battalion, together with SIPA and OSA, can be a very important segment for analyzing security threats to BiH (especially external ones) and a good basis for cooperation between the civilian and military security sectors in exchanging information, analyses, and assessments. Anyone who is against strengthening BiH's security capacities directly undermines BiH's defense capacities and its ability to actively fight against terrorism, emphasizes prof. Ahatović.