Revelation of unlabelled pork in army rations sparks outrage

Ministarstvo odbrane BiH

Members of Bosnia’s Armed Forces have unknowingly been consuming pork within their rations, Bosnia’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday, which prompted the Bosniak Presidency member Sefik Dzaferovic to urge the Ministry to investigate the case and punish those responsible.

Following a number of complaints by soldiers and recent media allegations on irregularities in food distribution and supply, the Ministry conducted a detailed investigation into the matter and discovered that two suppliers of canned food and beef products delivered products containing unlabelled pork.

The delivery violated the contract with the Ministry and its food regulation because the said food was also consumed by Muslim members of Bosnia’s Armed Forces.

The Ministry said they immediately pulled all the food from use until the end of their investigation and that they will determine whether someone from the Ministry or the Armed Forces was responsible for this incident.

“I urge you to determine the responsibility of all participants in this unacceptable incident and to punish those responsible,” the newly elected Bosniak member of Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency, Sefik  Dzaferovic said in his letter to the Defence Minister, Marina Pendes.

He asked that the Ministry re-examines all food supply procedures for the Armed Forces and take all necessary measures to avoid such omissions in the future.

“I demand an official report on all the activities and sanctions against those responsible,” Dzaferovic concluded.

The biggest Bosniak party in the country, the Democratic Action Party (SDA), asked the Ministry “to sue the suppliers who took part in this scandal, and to publicly announce their names and the exact names of controversial food items, as other Muslims living in Bosnia and Herzegovina would not buy such products.”