SARAJEVO/BANJA LUKA, Nov 4 (Hina) - The Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, Mladen Ivanic, admitted on Monday that the entity authorities had tried to sell arms to Myanmar, claiming he had not known about a UN ban on arms trade with
Myanmar.
SARAJEVO/BANJA LUKA, Nov 4 (Hina) - The Prime Minister of Republika
Srpska, Mladen Ivanic, admitted on Monday that the entity
authorities had tried to sell arms to Myanmar, claiming he had not
known about a UN ban on arms trade with Myanmar. #L#
Ivanic told reporters in Banja Luka that Republika Srpska had tried
to sell to Myanmar arms from the Bosnian Serb army's reserves which
were to be destroyed as part of attempts to reduce the armed forces
in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The deal with Myanmar was not concluded and the talks were abandoned
when it became known that the UN bans such trade, Ivanic said.
The Bosnian Serb premier is the first official who spoke about the
reasons for a mysterious visit of the entity's defence minister
Slobodan Bilic and the army chief-of-staff, General Novica Simic,
to Myanmar ten days ago.
Bilic and Simic left for Yangon (former Rangoon) without any
previous announcement exactly at the time when the country was hit
by a scandal caused by the illegal sale of arms from the Bijeljina-
based air force institute "Orao" to Iraq.
Upon their return from Myanmar, Bilic and Simic tendered their
resignations, accepting "political responsibility" for the
scandal involving the institute, however, they failed to explain
why they had travelled to Myanmar.
(hina) rml