KS Government Opens Door for Dismissed Ćosić to Become Commissioner Again!?

By: Amra Varatanović

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As of today, there have been changes in the management of certain police administrations and the head of the uniformed police sector within the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Sarajevo Canton Police Administration, based on the decision of Police Commissioner Mevludin Halilović. 

Thus, Halilović appointed Vahid Ćosić, who was the head of the Vogosca Police Administration, as the head of the uniformed police sector. He reassigned the former head of that sector, Džafer Hrvat, to head the Ilidza Police Administration. And these are not the only reassignments, but they are very indicative at a time when the KS Government is deciding on the dismissal of Commissioner Halilović. If this reassignment had not happened, after the dismissal (hypothetically speaking) of Commissioner Halilović, Džafer Hrvat would have been appointed acting commissioner, just as Halilović was after Vahid Ćosić's dismissal from the position of commissioner in November 2016.

Last week, based on the assessment of the Independent Board for the Selection and Review of the Police Commissioner, the KS Government confirmed the assessment of the police commissioner's work for 2018 as "unsatisfactory". Halilović was given eight days to file an appeal, which he will submit at the end of this working week. The ball is now in the KS Government's court again. 

This, frankly speaking, political game that began with the initiative to dismiss Commissioner Halilović has become further complicated by personnel changes in the Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Internal Affairs Police Administration. On the one hand, Halilović had the legal right to make changes (but were they necessary at this moment?), but on the other hand, he knew how much Vahid Ćosić's name was burdened by the murder case of Dženan Memić, the poor security situation that prevailed in Sarajevo, and the public protests after the deaths of students Edita Malkoč and Selma Agić, after which his dismissal followed very quickly. 

Allowing him in this way to become the head of the Police Administration again is walking on thin ice. Ćosić was the police commissioner for seven years, and he abolished security checks for police officers, which Halilović reinstated. According to information available to the Patria agency, Ćosić also meets the conditions for retirement, i.e., leaving active police service. 

It is clear that this is a certain message from Commissioner Halilović as well. However, as a police professional and the head of the Sarajevo police, he will also face numerous criticisms for this move. Even if he claimed that the security situation was disrupted by the initiation of his "political dismissal," then we can also claim that it will be further disrupted by appointing Ćosić as acting commissioner of the Police Administration. 

The Independent Board, as well as the initiators of his dismissal, nor the KS Government itself, certainly did not expect Halilović to make such a decision in the final stretch. This will be a test for the KS Government as well, whether they will take the risk and allow a man who was already dismissed from that position and who should have been counting his retirement days to head the Police Administration. 

The strained relations between the KS Government and the Police Administration can only harm the citizens of Sarajevo Canton in an already precarious security situation. Can citizens feel safe at all if there are open problems in the functioning of the police? As long as security agencies and their leaders depend on politics, we cannot talk about the independence of security services. Finally, regarding the case in question, does anyone have the right to usurp an entire police structure for the purpose of resolving personal problems?

A similar case occurred with the head of the Federal Police Administration, Dragan Lukač, who spent his second term in that position as a pensioner. The FBiH budget was damaged by hundreds of thousands of marks paid to Lukač during his second term. To make matters worse, following a well-rehearsed scenario, he was also allowed to receive a severance pay of almost 30,000 KM. The numerous scandals left behind by Lukač are not only his burden but also that of his political protectors, primarily the federal minister Aljoša Čampara.