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Armed Forces in Bosnia in 2001

The primary purpose of any armed force is to defend a country's territorial integrity and sovereignty. The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) was unique, however, with two distinct armed forces in defence of one country. Such a defence structure has led to armed forces that have become an economic burden on the country. The General Framework Agreement for Peace (GFAP) allowed for two armed forces to respectively represent the country's two entities, the Federation of BiH and the Republika Srpska. The intention of the GFAP was to have the two forces working together in the common defence of BiH.

While great strides in co-operation between the two militaries had been made, by 2001 much work still needed to be done to restructure and downsize the armed forces in BiH (AF in BiH). Military expenditures were too high and the forces were too large to justify such a burden on a peacetime economy. The forces consisted of the Army of the Federation of BiH (VF) and the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS). The VF is further divided into two components, a Bosniac one (VF-B) and Bosnian-Croat one (VF-H), but only at the headquarters was the VF manned with officers and soldiers of the two components. Ensuring the forces were under civilian control, each entity had a Ministry of Defence. Also, the three members of BiH Presidency served as the Supreme Commanders of the AF in BiH.

There were more than 34,000 professional troops and about 15,000 reservists in the AF in BiH as of 2001. The VF, with nearly 24,000 troops (16,618 VF-B, 7,225 VF-H), had four corps. In the VF-B component, the 1st Corps was based in Sarajevo, the 2nd Corps in Tuzla and the 5th Corps in Bihac. The 1st Guard Corps of the VF-H was based in Mostar. The VF had a number of combat arms units, including motorised infantry, mechanised infantry, armoured infantry, field artillery and air defence artillery. Other units included reconnaissance, signal, engineering and logistical support. The VF also had a rapid reaction force and an air force - air defence unit. With approximately 10,000 soldiers, the VRS also had four corps. Its 1st Corps was in Banja Luka, the 3rd Corps in Bijeljina, the 5th Corps in Sokolac and the 7th Corps was based in Bileca. Similarly, the VRS had a number of combat arms and support units (infantry, artillery, signal, engineering, reconnaissance, logistical). They also had an air force - air defence unit.

Steady personnel reductions of 15 percent from 1999 through 2001 helped to bring the number of troops down, especially from a 1995 end-of-war estimate of 430,000. Still, in a country of 4 million people, supporting 34,000 troops is a great economic burden when levels of unemployment reach 40 percent in BiH.

The BiH militaries simply could not be sustained the way they are. They could fulfil their mission far more effectively if their personnel strength were significantly reduced. The problem lay in military expenditures, where the BiH defence budget was approximately 6 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). European countries spend on average about 1.5 percent of their GDP on the military. In many countries the defence budget does not exceed 2 percent of GDP. In only a few countries is the defence budget as high as it is in BiH. The bottom line was that a defence budget was not supposed to represent an undue financial burden on a country in peace time.

With the help of organisations like the OSCE, the Office of the High Representative (OHR) and SFOR, significant progress had been made in getting the AF in BiH to co-operate in the effort to restructure and downsize the forces. A common defence policy had been developed and progress has been shown through the Joint Military Commission (JMC). Both armed forces discussed plans to further reduce their militaries over several years to a force of about 20,000 troops. The VRS force was to shrink to 6,600 troops by 2005.