US Deputy Assistant Secretary of the State Matthew Palmer and the US Ambassador to Bosnia Eric Nelson are against the establishment of the auxiliary police unit in Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska (RS), and they do not support it in any way, Interior minister of Bosnia's other semi-autonomous entity, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), Aljosa Campara said on Monday.
“We spoke about the issue of migrations and we touched upon the issue of the auxiliary unit. The US delegation said is it up to Bosnia's authorities to handle the migrant situation,” Interior Minister of the Bosniak-Croat shaded FBiH entity said. “I must be honest and say that Mr Palmer and the US Ambassador said they were against the establishment of an auxiliary unit in the RS and that they do not support this in any way.”
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Campara added that the US invested a lot of money in Bosnia's security sector and that the two officials were convinced the auxiliary unit will not contribute to the improvement of the security situation in the country.
The RS Government adopted the amendments to the Law on Police at the end of March. The changes introduced an auxiliary police unit in this entity.
The unit would be composed of 1,000 youths who would be summoned only when necessary, the Minister said earlier, adding that they would have the same competencies as active police officers engaged in police duties.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Palmer, who stayed in Bosnia and Herzegovina last week, met on Monday with officials of police agencies in the country, at the US Embassy in Sarajevo.
Campara added that Palmer and Nelson said the US would continue to support Bosnia in dealing with the migrant issue as well as all other challenges it might face.
“We also spoke about the insufficient number of border police officers and I suggested we support the border police by sending them units from other police agencies,” Campara concluded.
After the 1992-95 war, Bosnia was divided into two semi-autonomous regions, the RS and FBiH. Each entity has its own government, parliament and police. The 2008 police reform supervised by the international community formed the state-level police, but those in the two entities remained.
