prijava
SARAJEVO, July 13 (FENA) - The appointment of a new director of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) once again has confirmed the fact that police structures in BiH are under pressure of being placed under political control, stated the Center for Security Studies Sarajevo (CSS).
The CSS underlines that the citizens’ safety is not even in the focus, "if such a focus exists at all, while it is much more important to install personnel that will be in line with the interests of the ruling political elites."
“There is no doubt that SIPA has the potential to fight against various forms of crime, so it is not surprising that there is a fierce political struggle over how these potentials would be used and in which direction. Thus, SIPA, from the police agency that was being threatened from entering into the territory of the Republika Srpska entity, for Milorad Dodik, a member of the Presidency of BiH, has become an issue of national interest, i.e., the issue of equality of peoples in BiH,” it is said in the statement.
The CSS further adds that "this is a classic deception because it turns out that the personnel from the ranks of the Serb people have so far had limited possibilities in managing that police agency."
However, it is noted that the last two directors of that agency came from the ranks of the Serb people.
“If we look at the slightly broader picture regarding police agencies at the state level, we come to the essential, continuous problem that these agencies, i.e., their main management positions, are ethnically predestined. Thus, SIPA is destined for Serbs, the BiH Border Police for Croats, and the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies for Bosniaks. And that matter of professionalism is already falling apart, because expertise in security issues must not be subject to ethnic shackles, especially because such categories are irrelevant in the work of criminal groups,” underlines the CSS.
They add that, regarding the appointment of heads of police agencies at the state level, it is necessary to "clean up" the Independent Board, whose work is defined by the Law on Independent and Supervisory Bodies of the Police Structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The CSS stressed that "without 'cleaning up the body, we will not have a fully professional and politically independent police structure, which is an imperative for the security of society and all its citizens."
(FENA) S. R.
