The Republika Srpska (RS) entity President is thinking of changing entity laws to give police more powers and, as he said, stop and future police reform attempts. Milorad Dodik thinks the RS should form a reserve police force, but he goes a step further.
“While I'm still the RS President, I’ll think about forming an RS ‘National Security Agency.’ We have no use of the State Intelligence and Security Agency (OSA) which tried to control our institutions instead of working on the security of the entire country,” Milorad Dodik said.
Dodik will soon take the position of Bosnia’s Serb Presidency member and the competencies of this institution stipulate:
“No entity will threaten the other entity with force or use force against the other entity. Under no circumstances will armed forces of one entity enter or stay in the territory of the other entity without the approval of its government and the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Opposition parties see this announcement as Dodik’s preparation for the new post and his intent to present Bosnia’s security situation as dangerous. Some go even further and link this line of thought to the Belgrade-Pristina negotiations.
“All this creates an atmosphere in which the Kosovo situation is linked to Bosnia. I personally believe that these are attempts to position the negotiating positions of Belgrade and Pristina more precisely,” a National Democratic Movement member Zdravko Krsmanovic said.
Krsmanovic who is a fierce critic of Dodik added that unless a solution is found for the Kosovo issue, the entire Balkans could head into chaos.
Competent state institutions had no comment on Dodik’s statements. Experts say that this is a subtle attempt to form reserve police forces. All other security structure is impossible to form.
“It’s impossible to form any intelligence agency in Bosnia. It is possible, however, to form some commissions, boards, departments in municipalities, cantons, etc. they could work on intelligence issues,” Jasmin Ahic from the Faculty of Criminology and Security Studies in Sarajevo.
On the other hand, Ahic believes Dodik is skillfully using his position to talk about protecting the RS from some non-existent security threats.
When it comes to this ‘RS National Security Agency,’ it would be impossible to form under the current laws, but a commission within the RS National Assembly is entirely possible. It could asses the security situation in this entity.
