"Grass" from the cannon

The war black-market in Former Yugoslavia.

Karl Bildt, Rajko Kasagic, Hasan Muratovic and Izudin Kapetanovic have recently met in Banja Luka. The first one is the International Community High Commissioner for restoration of Bosnia and Herzegovinia and the latter three are Prime Ministers of Republic Srpska, Republic Bosnia and Herzegovinia and the Muslim-Croatian Federation B&H respectively. The subject of their conversation was "the economics flows intergration". "We recommended Prime Ministres that Finance Ministres should meet and discuss the re- establishment of non-cash payment between the Federation & RS" - Mr Bildt declared after the Meeting. The dogged patriots and those uninformed shake their heads in disbelief; until yesterday the relentless enemies to plunge into business together? The Serbs exodus from Sarajevo proves that togetherness is impossible in B&H - they claim. But then they forgot that all through the war they were in business - selling and bying all kinds of weapons, food, cigarettes, drugs, services etc. The only condition was - payment in hard currency.

Armament: When the Muslim-Croatian conflicts were in full swing in 1993, the members of the B&H Army paid 20 000DM to the Herzegovinian corps of VRS to hit with artillery fire HVO. In due course the shelling started. As it didn't stop for some time, the Muslim officers feared that the Serbs would ask for more extra cash. They contacted the gunners by radio and explained the problem. "What are you saying? How much did you pay?" When they were told the price, the gunners calmed down the clients: "The rest of the beating is on the house !"

The above mentioned example depicts a considerably well-formed trade market with weapons, man-power and military services which reached its peak in 1993/1994. So, on the Tesjan frontline, the Serbian soldiers in Serbian tanks, wearing Croatian uniforms were shooting the Muslim and were paid 150DM per soldier while HVO Colonel Ivo Lozancic, the Commander of Zepce kept ordering the songs on the Serbian radio-Ozern. With the exception of Cazinska Karjina region where both Muslim parties were bying weapons from Krajina Serbs (Fikret Abdic-Babo hired both man-power and technology), the military equipment and services flow was running mostly between the Serbs and the Croats in the central Bosnia. Anyway, near Konjic, the HVO brigade "Herceg Stjepan" might have been looked at as a Serbian infantry unit an the rocket launchers of the VRS 2nd light brigade as the Croatian artillery unit. Something alike was going on in Teslic, too. All this had its Foundations on the mutual enemy political vision, and each of the quartermasters section found the ways and means to deliver their own requirements to their warring counterparts. For example, about 14 000 tons of petrolium entered RS through Herzegovinia. The procedure was following: on their way to Split, the Serbian trucks swapped the registration plates for the Croatian ones, and did vice versa on the way back, but this time they were loaded to the top. After the Washington Treaty, the Serbian-Croatian Cooperation died out, but the Croatian-Muslim one flourished on the same grounds. All through the war, the weapons business was highly profitable investment. It is true that the selling and buying rate decreased as the conflicts wore on due to the international competition, but still..........

The then President of the government B&H Hasan Cengic threw some light on the wholesaling business method: on the Maribor airport, the Slovenian Minister of Defence Janez Jansa happened to "Discover" beforehand about 120 tons of weapons destined for the Bosnian Muslims. Says Cengic: "The Slovenian Ministry of Internal Affairs was paid in cash and without paperwork ; in exchange, we were delivered from 30 000 to 35 000 long-barrels and a couple of hundreds of pistols. The price was from 1 200 000 to 1 600 000 DM". However, it would be wrong to think of barrel-buisness as solely under government or para-government monopoly. In 1992/1993, the retail traders had their piece of cake, too. It all started with UNPROFOR in Krajina. As soon as its soldiers acclimatized, the brand new traders turned up from nowhere offering bayonets for 20$ a piece, hand grenades 10 - 15$ a piece and pistol ammunition 1 - 2$ a bullet. When the initial market was formed, only then the real business started. "Scorpions" cost 500$, "TT" & "Zastava 7,65" 250 - 300$, "CZ 99" was dealt from 850 - 1000$. "Crvena Zastava" pistols were offered at a bargain for 400$, but here wasn't demand for it. Neither for AK-47: in most cases, a satisfied trader would give it as a gift to a grateful buyer after a well-made deal. On the other hand, long barrel scope business was booming. The prices were about 1000$ and they included a wide range from sniper scopes to recoilles gun scopes. Local businessmen showed amaizing flexibility: as the UNPROFOR bunch had been paid in US dollars, the dollar system of payment was adopted straight away.

Well, the question is why the peacemakers were buying the weapons. The Austrian Customs officials came up with a partial answer. At the end of 1993, three busses with Chechs - UNPROFOR members - on their way home were surrounded and searched through. One pistol, six hand grenades and some ammunition were confiscated. However, the well informed claim that the right price for weapons bought from Krajina Serbs was fetched later on with the Bosnian Muslims who at the time were in strikingly short supply, especially in besieged Bihac. The Serbian, but the Croatian retailers as well, were selling them whatever they like - nobody asked for the price. Because of the fact that the Serbs had some difficulties crossing the confrontation lines, what couldn't be said for UNPROFOR guys, they were, said in black-market terms, a sort of "second - hand" partners.

The next subjects are: Tobacco Road. Eat and drink at the market. "Blue" Trade.

Honningsvaag/Norway   March 3, 2016                                              Arne Gerrit Halvorsen        

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