Lukač's Promotion on Police Day

The two top police officials in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, FUP Director and MUP Minister Dragan Lukač and Aljoša Čampara, marked the FBiH Police Day today. Lukač told the media during his address that the Federal Police Administration has been depoliticized and represents the strongest police body in FBiH. It can be said that Lukač was promoting himself more than the police today.

And before the echo of Lukač's claim had even subsided, he contradicted himself with the very next sentence - the FUP is short of more than 30% of its staff, and he, Lukač, is accountable for his work to the minister and the FBiH Government. What kind of police force answers only to the minister and the government, and not to the citizens and the parliament? Such states in the modern world are called police states.

If the police are depoliticized, as Lukač claims, how then did the illegal police commissioner of MUP HNK, Ilija Lasić, under the control of HDZ BiH, stop a convoy with migrants near Konjic with long guns and return them to the Sarajevo Canton area, without any consultation with the highest state authorities. We still remember the claims of the recently dismissed Prime Minister Konaković that "SDA demanded the dismissal of Commissioner Halilović because he did not report the arrest of a party official". MUP USK is without a police commissioner at a time when it is facing a migrant crisis. Was Lukač talking about that depoliticization? Is it depoliticization when Lukač publicly clashes with political party leaders and tells them they will be arrested. It could be said that the FUP is depoliticized from other political parties, but not from SDA.

Politics was precisely the main obstacle that left the FUP without civilian oversight for more than two and a half years. While politics agreed on the oversight of the FUP's work, Lukač completed his term.

The list of Lukač's wrongdoings before the members of the Independent Board is long, if only they are willing to work. And, of course, if they work without political interference.

While politics dictates the terms for the police, or rather its top officials, hundreds of police officers are missing from cantonal MUPs at the same time. Those who work complain about working conditions, and at one point expressed their dissatisfaction through protests. Therefore, one should not ask Lukač about the success of the police, but rather the police officers who put their lives on the line every day and fight crime. It seems that the police are fighting those whom politics protects.

The relationship between the FUP and the BiH Border Police is also not functioning, and this is happening in the midst of the biggest migrant crisis. Lukač's claims about 7,000 migrants entering through legal border crossings, and a slightly smaller number through forests and illegal crossings, were refuted by the BiH Border Police.

- We note that such unargued and arbitrary statements and assessments of the situation regarding illegal migrations in BiH undermine the credibility of the BP BiH and damage the reputation of our police agency in the public eye, considering our maximum engagement at the border with limited material and personnel capacities, with the aim of preventing illegal crossings of the state border - stated the BiH Border Police.

Colleagues from SIPA and DKPT have joined the border police officers of Bosnia and Herzegovina in preventing the illegal entry of migrants. Some time earlier, cooperation was established between the Border Police, the MUP of Republika Srpska, and the police of Brčko District. Whether there will be (political) wisdom to involve the FUP in the migrant crisis remains to be seen.