The 'Troika' didn't even try to bring SIPA back to Sarajevo, now they accept the Appellate Division of the BiH Court to be in Lukavica

By: A. Čorbo-Zećo

The public is preoccupied with news about where the Appellate Division of the BiH Court will be located, while SNSD and Milorad Dodik insist it be in Banja Luka, the 'troika' parties are looking for it to be in East Sarajevo. Otherwise, the Law on Courts of BiH is one of the two remaining laws that we must adopt if we want to be able to consider opening accession negotiations for BiH's entry into the European Union.

However, the representatives of the 'troika', who advocate most for compromise (a word that increasingly irritates the public), are unable to reach a political level where they too have their own conditions, which they present to Milorad Dodik and Dragan Čović.

Ignorance and disinterest are often present among the members of the 'troika', and they do not shy away from presenting such things publicly.

Thus, Mia Karamehić Abazović, a representative of NIP in the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament, while explaining why the Appellate Division should be in East Sarajevo and not Banja Luka, also mentioned the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), obviously not knowing that not everything is in order when it comes to the location of this significant security institution of BiH.

“No one disputed that the location could be in Republika Srpska, East Sarajevo was proposed as a solution. It is not logical for partners from SNSD to demand that it be Banja Luka, or some other city in RS that is physically very far away. So, we have East Sarajevo, there are other places closer to Sarajevo, even Pale, in the final analysis.

One can hope that SNSD will agree to it being East Sarajevo, I see no reason why they wouldn't. It would not be the only institution in East Sarajevo. I remind you, SIPA, for example, is in East Sarajevo and that does not pose any problem,” said Abazović.

Therefore, the representative has no problem with more details regarding this agency, about which the public has been informed multiple times.

After the Agency was founded in May 2004, its headquarters were in Sarajevo. With amendments to the Law on SIPA in May 2012, SIPA's headquarters were moved to East Sarajevo.

Interestingly, the official website of SIPA lists four Regional Offices: Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Mostar, and Tuzla, although there is no facility in Sarajevo (FBiH) used for the needs of the Sarajevo Regional Office.

This is not a problem for SDA, and now for the 'troika', nor has anyone dealt with these devastating facts. Although the 'troika' promised to correct the mistakes of previous governments, they have obviously not even noticed them yet!

Otherwise, all employees perform their duties at SIPA headquarters in Lukavica (Republika Srpska).

So, the Sarajevo Regional Office is located in the SIPA building in Lukavica!?

Politics has not shown sensitivity to this issue, especially after SNSD cadres have held leading positions in this significant security agency for years.

Unfortunately, it is increasingly likely that the representatives of the 'troika' no longer dare to present certain demands to Milorad Dodik, in order to correct long-standing injustices or, perhaps, to show that they are different from those who have held power so far.

The 'troika' could have put the issue of SIPA's location on the agenda precisely in conjunction with the discussion about the future location of the Appellate Division of the BiH Court. However, this topic has not been mentioned in public for a long time, although a few years ago the idea of building the Special Support Unit base at another location, namely in Sarajevo, was topical, given that SIPA's headquarters are in East Sarajevo.

And that remained just an idea, and now the representatives of the 'troika' don't even see a problem with it!