Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) shares the western concerns about the situation on the Ukrainian front. Therefore, it is not surprising that it is among the many countries whose weapons and ammunition are currently being used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The quantities of weapons may not be enough to overshadow other Western partners, but the fact that part of the production from BiH’s defense industry is being used on the battlefield is indisputable. Naturally, sending weapons to Ukraine could also be interpreted as a move to “re-register” BiH from a country that (from the Muslim part of the Federation of BiH) provides political support to Ukraine to a country that has taken a side in the war. But BiH takes that risk into account.
NO CONTRACTS, BUT THERE ARE WEAPONS
Unlike Ukraine, BiH, like Serbia and Croatia, was under an international arms embargo during the war, so the shortage was attempted to be compensated by domestic production. This wartime experience proved valuable for peacetime business, and today factories such as UNIS-Pretis Vogošća, Zrak from Sarajevo, the Repair Institute from Hadžići, Binas from Bugojno, Igman from Konjic, BNT from Novi Travnik, or Ginex from Goražde export their products to more than 100 countries. The list of customers is impressive—from NATO members to African and Arab armies. This should not be surprising; all these factories are under the control of political, military, and criminalized authorities in Muslim Sarajevo. Among other things, Muslim factories produce armored vehicles, large-caliber artillery systems, infantry weapons, and various types of ammunition. However, none of the federal (Muslim) military industry factories officially have contracts to deliver weapons to Ukraine. Export has been banned since 2015, but weapons still find their way to Ukrainian forces. How?
THE SCHEME IS ESTABLISHED
In arms trading, the following scheme functions: goods are sold to an agreed customer, and through further resale, the combat means end up with a third party. In this way, despite the legal provision on the “end user” report, it is undeniable that many parts of the weapons produced in Bosnia and Herzegovina have ended up in Ukraine, where export has been banned since 2015 by the decision of the Presidency of BiH. Journalists from the New York Times, citing confidential documents and testimonies from sources close to American intelligence circles, have revealed that BiH is just one of the countries from which intermediaries from the USA and some other Western countries are trying to procure grenades and ammunition for the Ukrainian army.
The newspaper writes that Ukraine has long relied on Russian weapons and is now trying to procure ammunition for Soviet calibers from manufacturers located in the “rural parts of Eastern Europe,” as the authors of the article pointed out. American journalists clearly have insight into the fact that at Bratstvo in Novi Travnik, Pretis in Vogošća, UNIS Ginex in Goražde, and Binas in Bugojno, 155 mm M107 projectiles, 122 mm OF-462 ammunition, 105 mm HE M1 ammunition, and mortar ammunition of all calibers are produced. The opening of Pandora’s box was also served by a video published on the Ukraine Weapons Tracker channel showing Ukrainian soldiers unpacking an M69A mortar produced in the Bratstvo arms factory in Novi Travnik. Did the federal military industry companies violate the decisions of the state Presidency? Obviously, they did, although none of them officially have contracts for the delivery of weapons to Ukraine.
ARTICLE 13
The setup is as follows. The Muslim-Croat Federal Government has a majority stake in eight military industry companies, but these companies independently enter into multimillion-dollar deals with foreign customers. For the export of products, permits from four state ministries (Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, Defense, and Security) are necessary, so weapons and ammunition go to known addresses. The very production and export of weapons, ammunition, and other military articles in the militant entity of the Federation of BiH is recording a continuous increase, which justifies investments in the development of the defense industry.
The trend of production growth has been linked by some media in Republika Srpska to the war in Ukraine, concluding that Muslim weapons and projectiles, with the alleged consent of federal factories, are being bypassed and exported to the mentioned country, which is also true. Since 2022, companies from the Federation of BiH have been exporting weapons and ammunition to 113 countries, worth several tens of millions of dollars annually. The buyers are the USA and other NATO members, as well as a large number of Asian and African countries. Despite the fact that the law explicitly prohibits the export of weapons to war zones, which implies the impossibility of obtaining permits for such transfers, there are ways to bypass the law and circumvent regulations. It should be noted here that factories in the Muslim part of the Federation of BiH that produce weapons and ammunition, in the event of an immediate war threat, have the obligation to make production available to the Ministry of Defense of BiH. Namely, according to Article 13 of the Defense Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the mentioned ministry is responsible for creating and maintaining defense capacity to ensure the protection of sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence, and international subjectivity of the BiH state. In Sarajevo, where the state is considered their religious and national property, any talk of war is always directed towards the inevitable conflict with Republika Srpska and the Serbian people.
DIZZYING GROWTH OF EXPORTS
According to data from the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH, the most sought-after items are grenades, bombs, mines, rockets, and military ammunition and its parts, with the total export value of these products amounting to approximately 142.5 million BAM. BiH also exported parts and accessories for military weapons, revolvers, pistols, and other firearms worth around 2.7 million BAM. Altogether, this represents a 48% increase compared to the same period last year, when the export value was 99.8 million BAM. At the top of the list of countries to which Muslim factories in BiH export weapons and ammunition are the USA, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Iraq, Serbia, and Saudi Arabia. The war in Ukraine is driving up the prices of such ammunition and weapons.
If we analyze the period from 2020 to 2023, it is noticeable that during that time, the defense industry of Bosnia and Herzegovina was not particularly utilized for the needs of the Ukrainian war, although the Federation provided assistance with human terrorist resources and to a lesser extent with weapons. Indicators show that before the war in Ukraine, in 2020, BiH exported military equipment worth slightly more than 100 million USD. The largest buyers were Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the USA, with ammunition and military equipment dominating the exports.
During the following year, 2021, arms exports increased, with the fastest-growing markets in Saudi Arabia and Poland. By 2022, arms exports amounted to 149 million USD, with the main destinations being the USA (34.9 million USD), Saudi Arabia (26 million USD), and Turkey (17.5 million USD). Ammunition accounted for 94% of the exports. In 2023, the trend of increasing arms exports continued, with an increase in exports to Turkey and Egypt. In short, the West has recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina as potentially useful in the war against Russia, and since that moment, many indicators have changed.
THE SECRET OF VOGOŠĆA FACTORY
The history of the defense industry in BiH reveals many important facts and shows great, almost unlimited possibilities. The “UNIS-PRETIS” factory in Vogošća (a suburb of Sarajevo) was considered the largest defense production factory in the SFRY until the war in BiH. The factory was better known for the licensed production of the popular Golf 2 (TAS), and few employees were aware of what was actually being produced in this factory. The civilian part was only formally separated from the military part because the entire production was aligned so that in the event of a future war, it would automatically switch to a military work regime. Namely, under the same roof where cables for the Golf were produced, there was a facility (the only one in the entire SFRY) for the production of rocket projectiles for the MLR (multiple rocket launcher) type “ORKAN” 262mm – the most powerful weapon produced and possessed by the then JNA. The facilities were separated only by thin partition walls, which would be removed in the event of the aforementioned war and merged into a single unit. At that time, the factory employed about 11,000 workers, with 7,500 in the military part. The size of the entire complex – the factory circle with underground facilities – is illustrated by the fact that the western gate (entrance) is separated from the eastern one by an incredible 12 km! A railway line was built through the complex, so the final products were easily transported from the factory to the market. It is estimated that the production capacity of PRETIS production lines was about 4,000 projectiles of various calibers per day. On a global scale, this amount of produced grenades placed this factory at the top and guaranteed market success. The factory itself had the most modern machines for the production of projectiles from 76 to 400mm (rocket engine facility), and one of the facilities also manufactured FAB-250 air bombs, which are still used on the Ukrainian front today.
GERMAN LINE
Machines were procured from all over the world from all known manufacturers of this type of equipment. Apart from the modern ones, which were represented by almost 90%, the line delivered from Germany as war reparations, with a capacity of 1,000 grenades/day up to 100mm, also operated for almost a century. This line was called “Hitler’s Mint” by the workers, alluding to its original origin. Rocket motor chambers with a capacity of 1,000 tubes per day were made according to the most modern American technology, and in that facility, 500 chambers were produced daily for the GRAD 122mm rockets (MLR), intended for the Iraqi Operational Systems.
Violations of international arms trade regulations imposed by the UN Security Council and the OSCE are justified by lies that weapons and ammunition “made in BiH” are used exclusively for defensive purposes and not for conquest wars. The war against the Russian world has all the prerequisites to be called a conquest war. But this fact does not intrigue the attention of official Sarajevo.
To be continued…
