AI-DPC BiH SECURITY ANALYSIS POLICY NOTE 05: Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Nexus with Islamist Extremism
AI-DPC BiH SECURITY ANALYSIS POLICY NOTE 05: Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Nexus with Islamist Extremism

Author(s): Vlado Azinović
Subject(s): Security and defense, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: DPC Democratization Policy Council e.V.
Keywords: Syrian War; Muslim foreign fighters; Salafism;
Summary/Abstract: BiH was the first country in the region to amend its criminal code to prohibit joining “foreign paramilitary and para-police formations” which it did in June 2014 and it has since joined the international coalition against ISIL. Operation Damask, undertaken by the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), the BiH Intelligence and Security Agency (OSA), and the BiH Prosecutor’s Office in late 2014 through early 2015, targeted those suspected of recruiting or financing BiH citizens to go to Syria and Iraq. The BiH Prosecutor’s Office for its part formed a new task force to deal specifically with these types of cases. The entities have created specialized police bodies to counter terrorism and extremism. But, as is well known and has been demonstrated previously, most visibly during the February 2014 protests, cooperation and coordination among these various structures is ad hoc and sporadic at best – not based on any institutionalized mechanisms, but rather often dependent on personalities and individual initiative.

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