According to the Croat member of Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency, Zeljko Komsic, the exercise the Interior Ministry of BiH’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity is organising in the town of Mrkonjic Grad and on mount Jahorina on Friday represents a “provocation.”

According to Komsic’s office, he informed US special envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, about the exercise.

The tactical exercise organised by the police in the semi-autonomous RS entity comes amidst a major political crisis in the country, only days after the entity parliament decided to establish a parallel agency for medicinal products, which will operate separately from the state-level one.

The move is seen as a test for further takeovers of competencies from the state and the first step towards rolling back post-war reforms which resulted in the establishment of certain state-level institutions, including the army and judicial institutions.

“At 12 o'clock in Donji Barici, in the complex of the company Dragisa komerc near Mrkonjic Grad, police officers of the Police Administration Mrkonjic Grad, Gendarmerie of the RS Interior Ministry and units of the Gendarmerie Mrkonjic Grad, Doboj and Prijedor will perform an exercise to prevent smuggling of migrants who would respond to the police with armed resistance,” the RS Interior Ministry said.

As for the exercise on mount Jahorina, police officers from Istocno Sarajevo, members of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit, the RS Interior Ministry Gendarmerie and the Istocno Sarajevo Gendarmerie Unit will participate in an exercise to prevent a simulated terrorist attack at the Jahorina Olympic Center.

“The RS Interior Ministry and the RS Gendarmerie are taking part in the exercise, and it is clear that this is another provocative move aimed at producing a conflict,” Komsic's cabinet said.