Lukač's Reserve Force and the Legalization of the Scorpions

It is quite normal for the Minister of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, Dragan Lukač, to see nothing wrong with forming a reserve police force; moreover, he recommends that a reserve police force "should also be formed in the Federation".

And indeed, what is wrong with that?

It is normal for the police structures of any serious country to have a reserve police force, capacitated in accordance with the assessment of the highest state leadership, used to maintain public order and peace, especially during large gatherings that the regular police cannot handle, or in the event of natural disasters when a swift state reaction is needed.

However, it is problematic, therefore not normal in the context of the current situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the authorities to reduce the standard of living of citizens while increasing the number of gun barrels. 

The problem, therefore, is not normal, if we also know that Minister Lukač, through Article 7 of the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Police and Internal Affairs in Republika Srpska, provides for filling gaps in the ranks of the regular entity police, in case of dire need, some great emergency, with police officers from other countries, such as, who knows, neighboring Serbia, under the pretext of fighting international crime, and by giving false identities to foreign police officers. 

However, things are now further complicated if we know that even without Article 7 of the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Police and Internal Affairs in Republika Srpska, gaps in the ranks of the regular entity police of Republika Srpska during the war against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the nineties were filled by police officers from other countries, such as, as we have already said, neighboring Serbia, and today domestic and international courts are full of evidence of crimes committed by foreign reservists. (*It is enough to type the tags Scorpions, Serbia, liquidation on the internet). With the new legal solution, Lukač does not solve this problem; on the contrary, in the event of a new crisis, he ensures that the Scorpions in Bosnia and Herzegovina will no longer be treated as paramilitary formations, but as legal international assistance in the fight against, for example, Bosniak extremists. 

If these were security plans made in good faith and intention, to truly protect citizens and their property from crime and the migrant crisis that has been causing problems for Bosnia and Herzegovina for some time (which Lukač uses to justify the need to form the reserve force of the MUP RS), the Federation and Republika Srpska would jointly engage and strengthen the Border Police of Bosnia and Herzegovina, or cooperate with Serbia to secure the border on the Drina River together. On the contrary, Dodik refuses any discussion about Bosnia and Herzegovina sending the army to the border where the police cannot control the entry of migrants. Why, for example, would it be easier to pay an additional 1,000 reserve police officers to search for illegal migrants in the interior of the country, if they can be stopped at the state border with the existing and paid army.

At this moment, it is very easy to predict that the amendments to the Law on Police in RS are not clean business. On the contrary, the powers that Lukač would gain with the new law will backfire on both the citizens and those opposition politicians in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska who support Lukač's law. Because, what can we see if we follow the continuity of the policy of the Minister of Internal Affairs of RS from the nineties to today? Dragan Lukač, as a member of the Army of Republika Srpska in November 1994, led an attack on the Bosniak village of Sokolac near Bihać. At that time, Nedžad Dizdarević, a member of the Army of RBiH, was captured. A recording was released showing Lukač ordering "take him away". Dizdarević was taken away and killed. Pavle Gajić from Ključ admitted in the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina that he slit Dizdarević's throat, for which he was sentenced to seven years in prison. 

Twenty-four years later, it has fallen to Lukač to be the Minister of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska. When the citizens of Banja Luka took to the streets at the end of 2018 because the authorities had not discovered the killers of the young man David Dragičević, son of former VRS member Davor Dragičević, Lukač again ordered "take him away". This time, the police took away Davor, David's mother Suzana, member of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska Draško Stanivuković, and several other citizens who were protesting in Krajina Square. 

We see that it does not matter to Lukač whether the opponent is a soldier of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina or a soldier of the Army of Republika Srpska. Every time the regime is threatened, Lukač will say "take him away". He just needs the environment to be created for that. For example, it is necessary to adopt the amendments to the Law on Police and Internal Affairs in Republika Srpska.