EUFOR Continues SFOR's Operation Harvest

31/01/2005

EUFOR is continuing to collect weapons from local people in BiH, extending a NATO-originated weapons-collection programme, Operation Harvest.

By Beth Kampschror for Southeast European Times in Sarajevo - 31/01/05

A Bosnian Serb soldier looks over weapons collected by SFOR's Operation Harvest in April 2004. EUFOR, which took over the mission in BiH, is continuing the Harvest programme. [AFP]

NATO's peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) might be over, but that doesn't mean that its long-running operation to collect wartime weapons has ground to a halt. The European Union Force (EUFOR) is continuing the operation, under the same name, and with the same goal in mind -- to eventually hand over the job to local authorities.

Because thousands of people in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) kept their guns and grenades after the 1992-1995 conflict ended, SFOR started Operation Harvest in the late 1990s to gather these and other weapons. Anyone voluntarily turning in weapons received full amnesty.

The EUFOR troops that took over peacekeeping at the beginning of December wasted no time in continuing the operation. In the first six weeks of their mandate, EUFOR troops conducted Harvest operations throughout BiH and came up with 1,500 small arms, 200,000 rounds of ammunition, 2,000 hand grenades, 100 mines, and 300kg of explosives.

The numbers, said a EUFOR spokesman, are consistent with SFOR's, and show that it made sense to continue the programme.

"The reason for Harvest ops are the same for EUFOR as they were for SFOR," said EUFOR spokesman Lt. Comm. Chris Percival. "Illegal weapons are a hazard. They can be used by criminals as well. The constant flow of weapons that shows no sign of abating shows that it's still a problem."

EUFOR has three different types of Harvest operations. In the first, troops let a town or neighbourhood know that troops will be around on a certain day, and that the people can drop off weapons at a collection point on that day. Or troops will knock on people's doors and ask if they have anything to turn in. Anyone turning in weapons under these types of operations faces no trouble, as the amnesty remains in effect.

The third type is information-based, meaning that for example, troops will act after someone reports a weapons cache to one of the force's 45 Liaison and Observation Team (LOT) houses based around the country. The LOT house teams -- where soldiers live in a house in a local community -- also help and advise local police on conducting their own Harvest operations.

Radovan Pejic, spokesman for the East Sarajevo Centre for Public Security (CPS) in Pale, said that the public's improved perception of local police is another reason that their twice-monthly Harvest operations are showing results.

"A large number of stolen vehicles have been returned, we're fighting economic crime and other serious crime," he said. "The number of unsolved crimes that disrupt the peace and order here is getting smaller. The sum total of our work means that citizens trust their police more and more."

East Sarajevo CPS is working with EUFOR to conduct a large Harvest operation in mid-February. Pejic said he's noticed no changes in Harvest since EUFOR took over from NATO in December.

"I don't see any special difference -- we also have very good co-operation with EUFOR," he said.

The co-operation between this particular CPS and EUFOR is what the peacekeepers are looking for as they move towards the long-term goal of handing everything over to local authorities.