Bosnia and Herzegovina experts design strategies to disrupt terrorist financing

Strengthening Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capacity to counter the financing of terrorism was the topic of a four-day course, which concluded on 01 December in Sarajevo. The course was organized by the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department, with the support of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The aim of the course was to highlight various instruments and techniques to assess and disrupt terrorist activity. Eight local trainers, supported by international experts, delivered sessions and exercises on financial disruption. Inter-agency teams examined the ‘business model’ of terrorist networks and learned how to apply techniques, including auditing and vulnerabilities analysis, to disrupt the financing of terrorism.

Twenty-four participants, including representatives of the Ministry of Security of BiH, the BiH Prosecutor’s Office, the State Investigation and Protection Agency, Intelligence Security Agency of BiH, the Ministry of Interior of the Federation of BiH, the Ministry of Interior of Republika Srpska and Brčko District Police took part in the course.

The course, organized with the financial support of the United States, is part of a comprehensive multi-annual training programme on countering the financing of terrorism, jointly implemented by the OSCE and the UNODC since 2020.

The training programme is designed to support Bosnia and Herzegovina to comply with international standards, in particular UN Security Council Resolutions, such as UN Security Council Resolution 2462 (2019), Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) standards, and OSCE commitments.