Renovation of border crossings in BiH and marking of ethnically pure territories

The ceremony of renovating border crossings with neighboring countries is a new practice of marking ethnically pure territories in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In construction jargon, we would say it's about marking ethnic plots.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has opened a modern border crossing at Ivanica, funded with two million KM, which is intended to improve traffic communication between BiH and Croatia in the southernmost part of the country. The ceremonial ribbon was cut by the president of HDZ BiH, Dragan Čović, with the support of the party's top leadership, from Borjana Krišto to Marinko Čavara.

Slightly earlier, representatives from Republika Srpska and Serbia officially marked the start of construction of a bridge with a border crossing at Bratunac – Ljubovija between BiH and Serbia in the northeast of the country. Neither at Ivanica nor in Bratunac did anyone represent the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The guests represented their own parties.

On the Drina River, there were also open discussions about further connecting Serbs on both sides of the river. The then-President of Serbia, Tomislav Nikolić, stated that he sincerely hoped that Serbia and Republika Srpska would one day be one. Therefore, the very foundations of this border crossing were laid with insincere intentions.

In ideal conditions, things should look like this. Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH, by decision of the Council of Ministers, is obliged to maintain and renovate existing and build new border crossings. Border crossings are the property of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and do not exclusively represent the right of any of the three constituent peoples in the country.

The actual attitude of BiH authorities towards the border is also demonstrated by the following example: Bosnia and Herzegovina has 83 border crossings. The Indirect Taxation Authority of Bosnia and Herzegovina receives only about 800,000 KM per year for their maintenance. This is not enough, as the ITA complains, even for basic maintenance of the crossings. It is reported that in 80 percent of border crossings, police officers work in inadequate conditions. In some, they don't even have a toilet, so they use the facilities of their Croatian colleagues.

It can be said that retrograde forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina are breaking down the state border into two new ones: a rhetorical and a practical one.

The BiH Border Police have already discussed a possible new way of redistributing border police officers, based on their place of residence. Anyone familiar with the ethnic structure of the population in BiH could discern that this was an attempt at an ethnic restructuring of the border police. Parts between BiH and Croatia, on the BiH side, would be controlled by police officers, BiH Croats, and the border between BiH and Serbia by police officers from Republika Srpska, while Bosniaks would get Sarajevo and Tuzla airports and border crossings in the north of the country around Bihać. Such an idea was halted after pressure from the media and the public. The only question is how long this dam will hold if citizens do not send retrograde policies to the trash next year. (A. Aljović)