SARAJEVO, April 4 (Hina) - The findings of the federal defence ministry's checking of the military sector show that military companies in the Croat-Muslim entity had not taken part in the export of arms and military equipment to Iraq,
the defence minister of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Miroslav Nikolic said on Friday.
SARAJEVO, April 4 (Hina) - The findings of the federal defence
ministry's checking of the military sector show that military
companies in the Croat-Muslim entity had not taken part in the
export of arms and military equipment to Iraq, the defence minister
of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Miroslav Nikolic said on
Friday. #L#
Nikolic said his ministry's officials in cooperation with the
interior ministry and federal finance police had carried out a
thorough audit in relevant federal companies as soon as it was found
that the Orao military institute in the Bosnian Serb entity had
murky business dealings with the Saddam Hussein regime.
No evidence was found during that inspection in the Federation.
"The inspections found no direct violation of the UN embargo on the
export of arms and military equipment (to Iraq). The documents on
the end users of the services of export in all cases show that there
was no trading with any country under the UN embargo of this kind,"
Nikolic said.
He thus rebutted the media speculations, and accusations from the
Republic of Srpska levelled against the other entity, that the
Croat-Muslim Federation was also involved in the murky dealings
with Iraq.
Only a day after Mirko Sarovic, former Serb entity's president was
forced to assume his political responsibility for the Orao scandal
and resign from the post of the chairman of the Bosnian collective
presidency, a deputy of the High Representative to Bosnia, Donald
Hays, asserted that the international community possessed data on
the federal authorities' involvement in that export.
Hays was quoted by the Banja Luka daily "Nezavisne Novine" as saying
that managers of the "Jugoimport" firm in Belgrade had told him that
companies from both Bosnian entities had been engaged in the
business operations with Iraq.
The Federation's vice premier, Dragan Vrankic, said the federal
government asked for the checking of the information released by
the defence ministry.
The accusations against the federal military firms could be based
on their business operations with other companies within Bosnia-
Herzegovina. Pursuant to the existent laws, no certificate or
letter is needed on the end user if the operations are conducted
inside Bosnia. Thus it is possible that the federal companies had
indirectly operated with Iraq, via partners in the Serb entity.
Nikolic said there were data on the business ties between the
companies in the federation and the "Jugoimport" in Belgrade, but
the end user in such dealings was always a country not covered by the
UN ban on arms export.
(hina) ms sb