RS Gendarmerie took control of BiH's eastern border, border guards accuse politicians

By Rasim Belko

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The Gendarmerie of Milorad Dodik has taken control of the eastern border of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This is claimed by sources of the Patria agency within the BiH Border Police, who add that everyone is turning a blind eye to this problem. Due to a shortage of border police officers, members of two state police agencies - SIPA and the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies (DKPT) - are being sent to the border to assist with the migrant crisis.

The aforementioned agencies, in terms of their representation, reflect the ethnic composition of Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, what our sources from the Border Police are pointing out is the fact that members of the MUP of RS are also being sent to the border, which has changed the balance of the ethnic composition of the temporary guardians of the BiH border.

Because of this, the ethnic ratio on the eastern border today is such that two-thirds are members of the Serb people, while the rest are Croats and Bosniaks.

Our sources claim that patrols protecting the border along the Drina River and a small part along the Sava River consist of one Border Police officer and two, or sometimes three, MUP of RS officers. Milorad Dodik, or rather the Minister of Internal Affairs of RS, Dragan Lukač, have recently been pushing the Gendarmerie as the unit they are sending to the border.

They also state that it often happens that patrols are completely ethnically pure of Bosniaks and Croats, because a Serb from the Border Police and two members of the RS Gendarmerie go on patrol.

In other words, if the Zvornik Border Police Unit has four patrols in the field today, there are four border police officers and eight, sometimes 10, Gendarmerie officers from Banja Luka.

Dodik has thus quietly placed the eastern border of the country, and by extension the RS entity, under the control of his paramilitary formation. He is doing all this thanks to the director of the BiH Border Police, Zoran Galić, and the political ignoramuses in Sarajevo. We don't even need to mention Čović, Dodik is an old friend of his.

The SNSD leader and member of the BiH Presidency is thus creating a new paramilitary formation, stronger in numbers, and all paid for by the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, or rather, taxpayers of this country are paying for the Gendarmerie's "assistance" on the eastern border, when in fact it is about border control that is increasingly being carried out by the RS Gendarmerie, contrary to the laws of this country.

In addition to the national imbalance created by the arrival of the Gendarmerie at the border, there is another, much more dangerous consequence. The Gendarmerie, like the MUP of RS, is controlled exclusively by Dodik and his people. And in any scenario that does not involve peace, this can be a big problem for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

For this reason, the duo Dodik and Čović probably do not allow the staffing of units in the BiH Border Police, while the habitually lethargic Izetbegović probably doesn't even know what is happening in the BiH Border Police, let alone what Dodik is doing on the eastern border of BiH.

The question arises as to who benefits from the Border Police not being staffed according to its structure for three years, and especially who has an interest in not increasing the number of authorized police officers due to the migrant crisis. Galić and his deputy Fahrudin Halač probably do not have an interest in this either, as it would leave them with less money for secretarial bonuses.

Also, the previous question can be followed up by asking how it is possible that there is money to pay Dodik's Gendarmerie at the border, but not to staff the Border Police.

Patria's sources within the Border Police claim that this police agency lacks 350 border guards, which would balance the national composition according to the population census, but also better protect the border. It seems even more frightening that the balance at the border is being disrupted by 120 members of the paramilitary Gendarmerie.

Embittered BiH Border Police officers tell us that they have actually become drivers for members of the RS Gendarmerie, which has deployed to the BiH border.

Politics is to blame again and again, namely the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which does not want to approve the recruitment and filling of vacant positions in the Border Police, which are filled in accordance with the national composition of BiH.

Border guards ask Bakir Izetbegović, Dragan Čović, and Fahrudin Radončić why they are allowing this? Why is Dodik allowed to bring the eastern border under the control of a paramilitary formation - the RS Gendarmerie!?