Union of Border Police of BiH: Three officers have the right to appeal, and the Ministry of Security of BiH should deal with accumulated problems

(Patria) - The Union of the Border Police of BiH reacted to media reports regarding the disciplinary proceedings against three border police officers who were punished for allowing the security of the High Representative Christian Schmidt to enter BiH armed.

"Regarding the articles related to the disciplinary proceedings conducted against our colleagues and members of the Union of Border Police of BiH from the Union Branch Gradiška, the Union of Border Police of BiH strongly condemns the publication of their first and last names, which we believe violates the rights they are entitled to under the Law on Personal Data Protection, as well as the right to the presumption of innocence until the proceedings are completed.

Labeling our members in the context that they are already guilty, even though those who punished them in advance should know that the completion of the disciplinary proceedings, which are conducted according to the principles of criminal proceedings, does not end the process of determining responsibility because they have the right to appeal to the Appeals Board of Police Officers, and after that, by initiating an administrative dispute before the competent court, to prove the truthfulness of the allegations and evidence brought against them, as well as the evidence in their favor.

Those responsible for police officers at the level of the Ministry of Security of BiH should pay more attention to low salaries and allowances, catastrophic infrastructure, uniforms, the unfavorable position of our colleagues residing in the Republika Srpska because they are the only ones who do not have the right to the best five-year average salary achieved upon retirement, medical examinations, insurance, and finally, the huge number of police officers currently missing from our agency, which further exhausts our colleagues in their daily work, for which they should be paid in the form of overtime hours.

The Union has submitted a proposal in the form of amendments to the Law on Police Officers of BiH, on how to resolve at least part of these problems, to which there has been no response to this day," the reaction states.