No Bosniak Participated in Drafting New Rulebook on Internal Organization of BiH Border Police

By Armin Aljović

The new Rulebook on the internal organization of the Border Police of BiH was presented at the BiH Border Service Directorate building in Sarajevo on Tuesday, December 13. 

The presentation was attended by the Deputy Minister of Security of BiH Mijo Krešić, members of the Joint Defense and Security Commission of BiH, members of the Independent Board of the Parliamentary Assembly, representatives of the German police, and chief inspectors of the Border Police. 

A grand ceremony for perfidious intentions.

Sources claim that the new Rulebook on internal organization in the BiH Border Police is nothing more than another victory over expertise and reason, all under the guise of reforms. The new Rulebook can also be interpreted as an attack on the fundamental values of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

According to the new rulebook, the Border Police should have 11 regional offices: Bihać, Gradiška, Brčko, Bijeljina, Zvornik with Tuzla Airport, Višegrad, Trebinje, Čapljina, Grude, Bosansko Grahovo, and Sarajevo Airport. Therefore, according to this rulebook, the Border Police would gain five new field offices.

The majority of the local population would be employed at the 11 border crossings. This would mean that all 11 border crossings would have ethnically homogenous officers. 

If this rulebook comes into effect, the ethnic structure in the BiH Border Police will be devastating. Regional centers will be filled with ethnically homogenous staff. Offices will become ethnically homogenous outposts. Such units can only defend party elites, and certainly not all citizens of the country. 

The new rulebook was presented by Vladimir Popović, one of the highest-ranking officials in the Border Police. His family ties to the leadership of Čović's HDZ are immense. 

It is indicative that not a single chief inspector of Bosniak nationality was included in the working groups that drafted the new Rulebook on internal organization in the BiH Border Police. These groups, according to sources, were appointed by Vladimir Popović himself. All inspectors were of Serbian and Croatian nationality. Such a situation is discriminatory. To make matters even more scandalous, it was stated that two independent inspectors of Bosniak nationality, Fahro Ibrić and Adnan Kosovac, were part of the working groups, but Kosovac attended only one meeting of the working groups, while Ibrić was excluded from his working group right from the start. 

Meanwhile, according to sources, Popović appointed, for example, a certain Viktorija Damjanović to multiple working groups. Other police officers, who are not inclined to ask questions but merely to carry out orders from their superiors, were also part of the working groups.
In this alleged reform, the key person alongside Popović was Kristijan Majncinger, a retired official of the German Federal Police. The same official participated in the creation of the first Rulebook 16 years ago.

Interestingly, the director of the Border Police, Zoran Galić, distanced himself from the new Rulebook on the internal organization of the Border Police of BiH. During the presentation of the Rulebook, he stated several times that he did not participate in its drafting. He also did not participate in the appointment of working groups. This certainly does not absolve him of responsibility. Galić, as well as his deputy Zijad Srabović, had an obligation to point out Popović's irregularities.