For the first time since its establishment, SIPA has more Serbs than Bosniaks; Dodik knows this, but does the Troika?

(Patria) - For the first time since its establishment in 2002, the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) has more Serbs than Bosniaks. This is shown by data from December 2024, in a response that the Council of Ministers of BiH determined at its session on March 17 this year to a parliamentary question.

In response to Patria's inquiry in December 2024 regarding the national structure of employees, only the Directorate for the Coordination of Police Bodies responded, while SIPA and the Border Police of BiH did not provide an answer to this question.

In December, SIPA had 744 employees, of which 313 were Serbs, 306 Bosniaks, 123 Croats, and two employees from other ethnic groups. The change in the ratio of Serbs and Bosniaks occurred precisely during the past year.

Regarding police officers, there are 231 Bosniaks, 202 Serbs, 99 Croats, and one from other ethnic groups.

Out of 14 chief inspectors in SIPA, six are Bosniaks, five are Serbs, and three are Croats.

Structure of police officers in SIPA

When the building of the Regional Office in Banja Luka was evacuated on March 7 this year by order of the Director of SIPA, Darko Ćulum, after the laws of the NSRs prohibiting SIPA's work in the territory of RS came into force in that entity, and which the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional later that day, only one Bosniak remained in the Banja Luka building, the duty operator. The national structure in Banja Luka is 61 Serbs, eight Bosniaks, and nine Croats.

In SIPA's headquarters in Lukavica, which is also the seat of the Regional Office Sarajevo, there are 538 employees, of which 246 are Bosniaks, 229 are Serbs, 61 are Croats, and two are from other ethnic groups.

In the period from January 2023 to December 2024, 22 police officers were hired in SIPA, nine Bosniaks and nine Serbs, and four Croats.

Regarding the current situation in SIPA, following the call by the suspect for an attack on the constitutional order, Milorad Dodik, for Serbs from RS to leave SIPA and join the MUP of RS, Ćulum responded by resigning from his position as Director of SIPA, which has not yet been accepted, so he is formally considered the director, along with several other employees. However, a massive response from police officers was absent.

Ćulum has not been coming to work at SIPA since March 18, and the agency's work is almost meaningless. Cadres from RS in the Council of Ministers of BiH, Staša Košarac and Srđan Amidžić, blocked the adoption of information about SIPA, which proposes a transitional solution until the election of new agency leadership, given that SIPA has not had a deputy director since July last year, although Zoran Galić was formally dismissed only in October 2024. Galić was appointed Deputy Director of SIPA in February 2023 after two terms as Director of the Border Police of BiH. However, in July 2024, he fled BiH to avoid arrest for abuse of office while he was head of the Border Police of BiH. Croatia refuses to extradite him to the BiH judiciary.

Košarac and Amidžić requested that the Council of Ministers of BiH only vote on Ćulum's dismissal, but not on a temporary solution that would enable the regular work of the Agency. At this moment, it can be said that SIPA is operating at minimal capacity.