The “peace” process in the Balkan region was a difficult one and, even now, the region is far from being stable.
The recent purchase of thousands of automatic weapons for the Bosnian Serb police has sparked the EU’s concern about the region becoming once again highly unstable and the Russians increasing their influence in the Balkans.
The Russians are interested in having influence in the region to avoid any more of the Balkan countries from joining NATO or the EU. Bosnia has been applying for EU membership for many years but is far from reaching the EU’s conditions.
The purchase of these arms from Serbia is not the only concern. A new training centre in which the Russians will be involved is set to open later this year.
The end to the Bosnian conflict came only just over 20 years ago with the Dayton peace agreement – which established two different autonomous regions in the country. Politics in the two regions are heavily ethnic based.
It is believed that this new purchase of arms could mean that the separatist leader of the Serbian run region of Bosnia, Milorad Dodik, could use the armed police to solidify his hold of the region ahead of the elections in October.
> Naomi Round
