ENDANGERED BUSINESS OF THE DEFENSE INDUSTRY IN FBIH: Košarac Denies UNIS Permit for Ammunition Export to Bulgaria, Serbia Denies Gunpowder for Binas

Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH Staša Košarac is blocking the operations of the defense industry in the Federation of BiH, writes Istraga.ba.

Due to Minister Košarac's decisions, contracts of BINAS and UNIS Group worth over thirty million marks are directly endangered. At the same time, Košarac issues all necessary permits to companies from RS.

The story begins on December 7, 2022, when the Sarajevo-based company UNIS Group submitted a request for a permit to export weapons and military equipment to Bulgaria. This involves millions of rounds of ammunition of caliber 12.7 and 5.56 millimeters.

According to the documentation, the buyer is the company Alguns Ltd from Sofia. This Bulgarian company, as has been previously reported, has closely cooperated with the US Pentagon on arming and training programs for Syrian rebels.

Two days after UNIS Group sent the request, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, headed by Minister Staša Košarac, requested "supplementary documentation." When all the necessary documents arrived, Košarac requested new supplementary documentation on January 12 of this year.

"In order to confirm the end-user and end-use of the goods, it is necessary to submit a document from the competent authorities of the Republic of Bulgaria confirming that the goods in question will not be further exported without the prior approval of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, or to make corrections to the import certificate regarding the purpose of export," stated the document from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH sent to UNIS on January 12 of this year.

To simplify, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH is asking the Bulgarian company as the buyer and Bulgaria as the country to which UNIS intends to export ammunition to commit that the goods will not be resold without the consent of Minister Staša Košarac.

According to Istraga's information, the production of the ammunition intended for export is in its final stages. However, Košarac is not allowing UNIS to export this ammunition.

Almost in the same period, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH issued a permit to a company from Pale for export to Bulgaria.

This was a permit issued to the company Smart Energo Sistemi d.o.o. Pale, through which military equipment worth one million marks was exported to the Bulgarian company Transmobile ltd Sofia. One of the co-owners of the company from Pale is Russian citizen Oleg Oleynikov.

(Photo: Istraga.ba)

Minister Košarac did not request confirmation from the Bulgarian authorities for this company from Pale that the buyer Transmobile ltd Sofia, a company registered for arms resale, would not resell the weapons further. The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations issued the export permit on December 29, 2022.

(Photo: Istraga.ba)

Therefore, what Košarac does not allow for UNIS, he allows for the company from Pale. But this is not the only blow to the defense industry of the Federation of BiH.

Bugojno's Binas is currently unable to fulfill most of its contracts because the Serbian company "Milan Blagojević Namenska" from Lučani allegedly does not have the gunpowder in stock that it has been regularly supplying to the BiH defense industry until now.

According to Istraga's information, Binas is now trying to procure gunpowder from France, but it is questionable whether they will be able to meet the delivery deadlines for their products.

In addition to these two cases, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH has on several occasions obstructed the issuance of export permits to Vogošća's Pretisa. However, after several interventions, these permits were eventually issued.