State Department released its annual report on 19th July, Country Reports on Terrorism 2016, which provides the Department of State’s annual Congressionally-mandated assessment of trends and events in international terrorism that transpired from January 1 to December 31, 2016. The report provides policy-related assessments, country-by-country breakdowns of foreign government counterterrorism cooperation; and contains information on state sponsors of terrorism, terrorist safe havens, foreign terrorist organizations, and the global challenge of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear terrorism. The report is available here.
Overview: Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) remained a cooperative counterterrorism partner and continued to make progress increasing its counterterrorism capacity. BiH law enforcement agencies generally kept close track of foreign terrorist fighter suspects, however, the Terrorism Task Force led by the State Prosecutor’s Office – tasked with improving coordination between BiH’s many security and police agencies – continued to falter. Violent Islamist extremist ideology and regional nationalist extremist groups both remained potential sources of violent extremism in BiH.
A number of BiH citizens have traveled to Syria and Iraq to support ISIS and other terrorist groups, but legal and societal efforts to prevent violent extremism were credited with having reduced the flow of foreign terrorist fighters compared to previous years. BiH officials and open media sources estimated that approximately 300 BiH citizens have left for destinations in Iraq and Syria since 2013, of which approximately 50 have returned. BiH government officials reported that there was no discernible flow of foreign terrorist fighters in 2016. BiH is a member of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.
Legislation, Law Enforcement, and Border Security: The majority of BiH’s coordination and cooperation problems are the result of personal, political, and institutional rivalries that exist among law enforcement agencies and the State Prosecutor’s Office. BiH continued to lack the capacity to thoroughly investigate and prosecute cases of terrorism and foreign terrorist fighters, particularly when investigations involve complex financial dealings, cyber recruitment, and coordination. While most prosecutions resulted in convictions or plea bargains, sentences were inadequate.
The BiH Border Police (BP) uses a computerized database and software system to support immigration and passenger information collection. According to the Border Police, the system connects BiH’s border crossings, including four airport locations (Banja Luka, Mostar, Sarajevo, and Tuzla) via the State Police Information Network (SPIN), a network developed and donated by the Department of State via the U.S. Department of Justice’s International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP). The Foreigners Affairs Service (FAS) reports that they have connected all but two of their 16 field offices to the SPIN network. The Directorate for the Police Body Coordination (DCPB), the State Investigative and Protection Agency (SIPA), the Federation Ministry of Interior, and the BiH Ministry of Security can reportedly also access SPIN. The SPIN network provides the BP and FAS with access to other supporting databases (including INTERPOL) to run appropriate checks and cross-checks.
Through the data exchange system, which became operational with European Union support in 2013, participating police agencies in BiH have the capability to exchange data, and any derogatory information will come up as a “hit” when a subject’s passport or BiH identification card is passed through the scanner at the point of entry. The BP has both legal authority and physical facilities at most border crossings to detain individuals for up to 24 hours while they consult with SIPA and the BiH Prosecutor’s Office regarding next steps regarding questionable individuals. Observers report, however, that there continued to be significant gaps in border security and it was unclear whether screening had occurred at all official points of entry. There were also numerous non-official points of entry that were not monitored.
Separately, ICITAP, with Department of State funding, has set up a limited biometric system for the FAS that will permit more effective monitoring of individuals entering and leaving BiH, and has supported two mobile command posts that can respond anywhere in the country and coordinate emergency response. Additionally, ICITAP plans to upgrade the DCPB’s Emergency Operations Center’s communications system to facilitate coordination during emergency situations. Emergency response systems were still lacking throughout most of the country, however, and law enforcement agencies were not fully equipped or trained to respond to a terrorist attack or natural disaster. The lack of information sharing between law enforcement entities would likely further inhibit a coordinated response.
The Department of State’s Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) program provided training courses and equipment donations to BiH Customs and Border Police, including a Docubox, a device used to identify fraudulent travel documents.
Countering the Financing of Terrorism: BiH is a member of the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL), a Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-style regional body. BiH’s financial intelligence unit, the Financial Intelligence Department, is a member of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.
In spring 2015, BiH was referred to the FATF public identification process due to its lack of progress rectifying core anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) deficiencies, including the criminalization of terrorist financing and failure to implement UN obligations for targeted financial sanctions. In June 2015 BiH made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and MONEYVAL and has been working to implement an action plan to address identified deficiencies since that time. In June 2016, the FATF recognized that BiH has taken steps towards improving its AML/CFT regime, including by finalizing a regulation for freezing terrorist assets under UN Security Council resolution 1373 and working to harmonize the federal criminal code with its equivalent in BiH jurisdictions. The EU noted in its November 2016 report on BiH that measures in the action plan need to be completed without delay, particularly on the registration and financial reporting of the non-governmental sector.
For further information on money laundering and financial crimes, see the 2017 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), Volume 2, Money Laundering and Financial Crimes: http://www.state.gov/j/inl/rls/nrcrpt/index.htm.
Countering Violent Extremism: The main religious communities in BiH (Catholic, Islamic, Jewish, and Orthodox) continued to work together through the Interreligious Council to promote tolerance and confront acts of bigotry or violent extremism directed at any of the communities. Among public figures, the Grand Mufti and leader of the Islamic Community in BiH, the Reis Kavazovic, continued to speak out against “misinterpretations of Islam” that lead to extremist violence. The Islamic Community made significant progress countering the spread of potentially extremist interpretations of Islam. In February 2016, the Reis Kavazovic officially called upon members of self-organized Salafist communities (parajamaats) to join the Islamic Community, or face legal consequences. According to officials, approximately 90 percent of the known parajamaats have since recognized the authority of the Islamic community, which now actively supervises the congregations and appoints their imams.
Regional and International Cooperation: BiH’s criminal code and related legal framework are generally harmonized with UN and EU counterterrorism standards. BiH is both a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and also the host of an OSCE field mission, which has assisted BiH in developing its counterterrorism strategy. It is also a member of the Council of Europe, and the Regional Cooperation Council (with Sarajevo hosting its headquarters), and a North Atlantic Treaty Organization-aspirant country.
BiH law enforcement agencies regularly interacted with their U.S. and European counterparts on counterterrorism investigations. INTERPOL has a Sarajevo branch office that has good cooperation withrange of counterterrorism and CVE programs sponsored by UN entities and regional organizations, includi all law enforcement agencies throughout the country, all of which have direct access to INTERPOL’s databases. BiH participated in a ng the OSCE.
