THE HALO TRUST has begun operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) marking and registering weapons under a project financially supported by the government of Germany. The project aims to improve the safety and security of BiH by making it easier to track and trace the stock of military weapons in the country.
The operation started after extensive preparation in cooperation with EUFOR, the EU stabilisation force in BiH, the BiH Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations (MOFTER) and the armed forces. Preparations included training of the military staff who make up the weapons marking team, and are in charge of conducting marking and registration activities.
On the first day of the project, the team marked and registered the first 20 pieces and is eager to grow the project.
Ownership of registered and unregistered small arms is prevalent across the Western Balkans and this project seeks to tackle part of the issue by improving the capacity of the BiH national authorities to safely and securely store and account for their stock of weapons and maintain records and storage to an international standard.