People serving top posts are not competent, and those who should react are not doing so, former Canton Sarajevo (KS) Minister of Interior, Nermin Pecanac, told N1 on Wednesday while commenting the murder of two police officers in Sarajevo last Friday.

The two officers were gunned down as they were approaching what seemed to be the scene of a car theft in progress.

The killings shook the nation and residents gathered at the crime scene to honour the victims and protest against what they see as a deteriorated security situation in the capital.

Police detained a suspect with a history of car thefts, a member of Bosnia’s auto mafia, who was ordered into pretrial detention on Wednesday.

Crime groups can identify the weaknesses of the state and abuse them, Pecanac told N1.

“A lot of acts are being repeated, sometimes I ask myself who I am even appealing to,” he said. “Those who need to hear it, don’t. The issue of organised crime is an issue of state security.”

“How can we, as an unorganised state, fight against organised crime?,” he asked and then added that “there are ways” and that the state must get more involved.

The security situation in Bosnia is not helping the society in the country, he said.

“Bosnia and Herzegovina is No. 1 regarding organised crime. How can a country with such an extent of institutional crime tackle organised crime?” Pecanac asked.

“There are people with criminal charges raised against them who are serving offices and who discourage those who want to protect this country,” he stressed.

All the administration’s mistakes and lack of work are now focused on the police, he said, explaining that, in fact, “police are the least responsible” for the situation, as the officers only act within their scope of competencies.

“The police are the first line of defense from organised crime and they have nobody to support them,” he said, adding that nearly nobody apart from certain agencies supports the police.

He said that the Justice Ministry could play a more significant role in maintaining the level of security in the country.

“The state Justice Minister says that better coordination between the judiciary and the police is needed,” Pecanac recalled, stressing that the minister himself should create such a coordination.

“He comments as if he were the audience when he should provide solutions. We have incompetent people serving serious offices,” Pecanac said.

The murder of the two police officers will surely be solved as all key agencies are involved, but what will happen then is unclear, he said.