If the international community remains silent to the formation of the auxiliary police unit in Bosnia's Serb-dominated region of Republika Srpska (RS), then all the pro-Bosnian forces must respond resolutely, the leader of the People and Justice party, Elmedin Konakovic, said on Friday.
“Taught by our history and genocide we survived, we must respond to the forming and arming of a large number of people in the RS, clearly and firmly, as a people and institutionally. Military and police forces in Bosnia, their number and level of equipment is not something that should be solved at the entity level,” Konakovic said. “Should the international community remain silent to this obvious violation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, I call upon all pro-Bosnian forces to unite and give a resolute response to this.”
The RS Parliament adopted on Thursday the controversial Draft Law on Police allowing for the formation of the auxiliary police unit. Politicians from Bosnia's other semi-autonomous entity, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina note that this move is in direct violation of the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, which regulates the number of police units in both entities.
Speaking to the press, the RS Interior Minister said on Thursday that only criminals should fear the police.
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The party's political director, Kemal Ademovic called on all State and FBiH institutions to make an urgent security assessment of the situation and respond appropriately.
“Right now, we need the Intelligence-Security Agency (OSA BiH) and the FBiH Interior Ministry to respond. They must make a clear security assessment and define an appropriate response,” Ademovic said.
The party adds that if the State and FBiH level fail to react, they will request that the Sarajevo Canton prepares an adequate response to this situation.
Our Party's leader Predrag Kojovic also responded to the Draft Law saying that citizens’ concerns are justified considering the constant separatist statements by the leader of the strongest party in the RS, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats’ (SNSD), Milorad Dodik.
“The migrant situation cannot be the sole reason for the formation of the auxiliary police unit. The migrant situation is an issue for the State institution. If the RS thinks they thus will handle the migrants more easily, this only speaks of their lack of professionalism and spending of budget funds on something that is destined to fail,” Kojovic said.
In spite of this, Kojovic said people should not panic.
“The budget for the auxiliary unit should be approved next year. The unit should have 1,000 people, and its formation will be done in phases. We have enough time to react and stop this process. The Competent State institutions, progressive parties and the international community must do everything in their power to stop the formation of this auxiliary unit,” Kojovic added.
