Sarajevo showdown at OK Coral: Troika factions in battle for control over the police!

Written by: Muamer Bandić, member of the Presidency of the Party for BiH and representative in the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton

It is clear to us that the parties of the Troika are incapable and underqualified to build a functional and fair system of government in the Sarajevo Canton, but what is alarming and what was seen at the 2nd emergency session of the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton on the security situation is that they do not even want to.

Whoever followed the presentations of the ministers of the Government of the Sarajevo Canton and the discussion that followed could not escape the impression that the institutions of the Sarajevo Canton, including those in charge of our security – the Ministry of Interior of the Sarajevo Canton and the Police Administration of the Sarajevo Canton – are completely politicized. It was evident that between “coalition partners,” and even between representatives from the same party, a real small war is taking place with one goal: who will take control over the management and governance of the security system.

Even before the emergency thematic session itself, it was clear that it was deliberately delayed and avoided in order to protect incapable party soldiers, i.e., to preserve occupied positions in system institutions of certain interest-based, clientelistic groups, which the public does not even see, nor is it aware that they exist within political parties. And such factional struggle is particularly pronounced in the parties that are in power. In this case, any public criticism of the security situation in the Sarajevo Canton, the work of the Ministry of Interior of the Sarajevo Canton and the Police Administration, carries the risk that the public will call the minister to account and demand personnel changes, whereby the current faction loses its achieved positions, while simultaneously opening an opportunity for intra-party competition to take over the security sector.

The fact that the Ministry of Interior of the Sarajevo Canton and the Police Administration are under direct political control, unfortunately, does not bother any of them. Moreover, the current masters of the security sector, through the Report of the Ministry of Interior on the clearance of actions that constitute elements of a criminal offense, have even resorted to amateurishly executed statistical manipulation in an attempt to hold onto their occupied positions.

In the last few years, it is neither news nor a surprise that the Troika lies and deceives the public; they just did it much better and more skillfully until this session. The aforementioned Report of the Ministry of Interior of the Sarajevo Canton on the reduced number of criminal offenses through a statistical presentation of data served the rulers to present the security situation in the Sarajevo Canton as satisfactory and the work of the competent minister as positive.

However, what the authors of this bland piece forgot is that every action that constitutes an element of a criminal offense is not cleared unless proven in court by the issuance of a convicting and final court verdict.

In all cases where the court renders a verdict acquitting the accused, it is considered that the actions constituting elements of a criminal offense have not been proven, and those cases remain unresolved. It is obvious not only that the authors of the Report do not walk the streets of this city at night due to the cold, but also that they have gaps in their fundamental knowledge of law, which cannot be patched up by party favoritism in system institutions.

How much the false democrats care about the safety of Sarajevo's citizens, the rule of law, or the rule of law was seen during the adoption of the conclusion on the depoliticization of the Ministry of Interior of the Sarajevo Canton and the Police Administration.
On behalf of the Party for BiH Club in the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton, I proposed a conclusion tasking the Government of the Sarajevo Canton and the Ministry of Interior of the Sarajevo Canton to initiate, as soon as possible, amendments to the Law on Internal Affairs and the Law on Police Officers, which would depoliticize the Ministry of Interior of the Sarajevo Canton and the Police Administration, as well as all other bodies and entities within the Ministry of Interior of the Sarajevo Canton and the Police Administration, in a way that prohibits the appointment to expert teams and all other working bodies of the Ministry of Interior of the Sarajevo Canton or the Police Administration of persons who hold or have held political functions, persons who are or have been politically active in political parties, parties, or organizations, and persons who have been appointed on behalf of political parties as holders of legislative or executive power.

The goal of this conclusion is to prevent any politicization of security issues and to prevent further weakening of the professionalism, independence, and integrity of the work of police bodies, as happened in the case of “Dženan Memić”.
Out of 21 representatives of the ruling coalition, which otherwise loudly promises honesty, justice, legality, equality, and transparency, only representative Arijana Memić voted for this conclusion, while all others abstained or voted against. Therefore, currently in the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton, within the ruling coalition of the Troika parties, the citizens of Sarajevo have only one person who is not there just for the sake of power! The entire discussion showed that for the others, power is the priority and the only goal they fight for, while fairy tales about Europe, the rule of law, a fairer system, and the betterment of our society are just colorful lies for the naive poor.

To talk about security while directly politicizing the Ministry of Interior of the Sarajevo Canton and the Police Administration, as Minister Katica did, is truly a political precedent, unprecedented in countries of parliamentary democracy. Our worthy Minister of Interior appointed the president of the Cantonal Board of NiP (a party colleague) and the president of the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton (a legislative body) to the Expert Team of the Sarajevo Canton for the Prevention of Crime and Other Security Risks in the Sarajevo Canton, which directly works for the Ministry of Interior of the Sarajevo Canton, i.e., for him as minister. Winston Churchill is turning in his grave at how his famous saying is applied in Bosnia: “When you don't want to solve a problem, form a commission.”

All in all, at the 2nd emergency session of the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton on the security situation, we witnessed the pinnacle of Orwellian populism of the rulers, where three days were spent discussing (in)security, while the ruling Troika persistently fought against the depoliticization of the Ministry of Interior and the Police Administration of the Sarajevo Canton. It seems that for this ruling camarilla, the politicization of security structures is a problem only as long as they are not under their thumb. How long will it be so? Only the sky is the limit!?