Police Games on the Other Side of the Drina

Head of the Serbian MUP Nebojša Stefanović, despite numerous media warnings and political silence, did not seek permission from the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina for holding a border, allegedly anti-terrorist exercise with the MUP of Republika Srpska, so just before the exercise itself, the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina was informed by the MUP of Republika Srpska that the exercise would be held exclusively on the territory of the Republic of Serbia.

The lack of seriousness was evident. It seemed as if official Belgrade found it harder to seek permission from the institutions of a neighboring country than to relocate the entire, allegedly carefully prepared exercise, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria.

This entire military-police circus was carried out with political seasoning, with flags of the Republic of Serbia and Republika Srpska, of course, without the flag or any insignia of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Although they had planned for the exercise to last a full four days, it lasted only one day. This showed that the alleged anti-terrorists faced some unforeseen criticism due to this exercise, because it was essentially an international border incident. From the maximum plans of showing force and violating the sovereignty of a neighboring country, only miserable plans of a few hours of police games of war on the other side of the Drina remained.

If the sole aim of the joint exercise was to "demonstrate readiness to fight terrorism," the question remains why the neighboring country did not include the Special Unit of SIPA, which has its own anti-terrorist team, in its exercise. That team was bypassed once before during a similar exercise in 2013?

A complete failure of this exercise of primitive intentions was shown, aimed only at harming the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The exercise succeeded, but its provocative political background was largely undermined.