BOSNIA: ARMS FACTORY UPDATE

Описание: (13 Nov 1994) Serbo-Croat/NatSot

The Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic has flatly denied that his forces in the former Yugoslavia are receiving significant deliveries of arms.

His denial, in an interview with APTV while on a two-day visit to London, contradicts a military official from his government army. The military official told APTV that Iraq and Iran are supplying parts to build multiple rocket launchers.

APTV has the first television pictures of the launcher - a 12-barrel device called "Orkan".

In the mountains surrounding Sarajevo, Bosnian government forces continue their push to break the siege of their capital. Using 20mm cannon fire, they try to drive the Bosnian Serbs out of their trenches.

The use of such weapons in defiance of the heavy weapon exclusion zone by government forces has placed them at odds with the United Nations and symbolises a new assertiveness among government soldiers.

When the fighting broke out more than two years ago, the Bosnian army was so short of weaponry that it resorted to refilling spent cartridges. Now, despite U-N sanctions and the war, new weapons factories have sprung up, producing even highly sophisticated arms.

In the last few days, Bosnian forces showed APTV one of their arms factories at a secret location in central Bosnia.

There, they allowed the first television pictures of the "Orkan" multiple rocket launcher.

Its 30-kilometre range put the one seen by APTV in striking distance of the Bosnian Serb parliament in Pale

Saddam Hussein funded the development of this joint Iraqi-Yugoslav designed weapon in Yugoslavia in the late 1980s.

An official of the Bosnian army says it is still getting parts from Iran and Iraq to build the weapon.

Arms experts say "Orkan" could have been constructed from parts stockpiled before the Balkans war began.

But they believe sympathetic countries in the Middle East are supplying weapons to the Muslim-led side.

Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic recently visited Tehran for trade talks. Speaking in London today (Sunday) he flatly denies that his government was receiving heavy weaponry from any foreign government.

SOUNDBITE:
"It's like many other myths. Where are the arms if we have them? We are not getting the arms to put them into museums. We would use them, very much we would like to get them from anywhere but we cannot. It is not true. It is, but very small amounts, light arms. We just don't get them. You will know when we get them. For the time being we don't have them."
SUPER CAPTION: Haris Silajdzic, Bosnian Prime Minister

SOUNDBITE:
"Well, over the last six months we have seen an incredible increase in the amount of power that the Bosnian government have had in their military. And...it has gone further than just being a militia, it's now a proper army with a command and control, it's got new weapons. We've seen the weapons it's been capturing from the Bosnian Serbs and the weapons they've been building themselves, using factories, new factories which they've managed to establish in the wrecks of old ones in places like Novi Travnik."
SUPER CAPTION: Paul Beaver - Jane's Defence Weekly

The Bosnian army also showed APTV one of its weapons stores near the frontline.

On display were Russian guns and American-style rocket-launchers, along with Chinese-built anti-aircraft guided weapons, known as "Red Arrow", and various missiles from NATO.

Bosnian Serb forces say Muslim firepower has grown considerably in recent months.


SOUNDBITE:
SUPER CAPTION: Unidentified Bosnian Serb Colonel



SOUNDBITE:



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