Authorities in Bosnia’s Serb-majority region should rather focus more on improving the lives of citizens than aspire to “militarise” their police force, Bosnia’s top institution, the Office of the High Representative (OHR), said in a statement to N1 after the freshly formed Gendarmery unit in the Republika Srpska (RS) entity was lined up for the first time on Tuesday.
“We're doing this for the future of Republika Srpska. This is a great step forward in the strengthening of our Interior Ministry. I wish no one ever had to use force and arms, I wish we could build hospitals so we wouldn't have sick people, but unfortunately, the world is different,” said the Prime Minister of the Serb-dominated semi-autonomous RS, Zeljka Cvijanovic.
RELATED NEWS
The office of Austrian diplomat Valentin Inzko, who as High Representative oversees the civilian implementation of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the war and contains Bosnia’s Constitution, sent a statement commenting on the new police unit to N1.
“Instead of aspiring to additionally militarise the police in Republika Srpska, the government should focus on professionalism, accountability and cooperation of the RS police with other law enforcement agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” the statement said.
“In principle, Republika Srpska, as well as all of Bosnia and Herzegovina, should have less police and fewer firearms, not more,” it said.
The OHR also added that “when considering the overall socio-economic situation” in the RS, it would be expected that the entity government would rather focus its attention and resources toward improving the lives of citizens so they do not leave the entity.
N1 also asked the US Embassy to comment.
An Embassy statement said that the USA has until now invested millions of US Dollars into support for non-militarised police agencies in the country “which have, above all, the responsibility to protect the interests of citizens.”
Responsible work of the police “which has a mission that is exclusively civilian” should be the priority across the country, the Embassy said.
“The United States of America will continue to closely follow the gendarmery of Republika Srpska and all other police forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to ensure that they act consistently and in accordance with their goals,” it said.
