Western mentors incapacitated the security sector: BiH state collapsed instead of declaring RS MUP a terrorist organization

By: Rasim Belko @rasimbelko

Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country that has been balancing on a thin line between peace and conflict for decades, has once again found itself in a political storm. The tension can almost be cut in the air, and the confusion, bewilderment, and fears in society and the public have been further deepened by security agencies along with the state system of government.

The epicenter of the storm is the old, familiar core of a secessionist volcano that has never ceased to smolder, and the judicial attempt to extinguish it has produced one of its biggest eruptions. However, unlike previous attempts, this time Milorad Dodik must go all the way, aware that the moves he has made in the past month do not give him room for calculation as he could before. The fact that both the Americans and the British have attacked him makes his final end predictable.

The fact that the political position offers him a clear amount of power indicates that the SNSD leader will seek a path to salvation to the extreme. And on that path, he will not shy away from resorting to absolutely all possible measures.

And here we come to the key question - how prepared is the state to resort to all measures to resolve Belgrade's longest-standing executor of hegemonic plans.

Milorad Dodik has been convicted of violating the law, and the BiH Prosecutor's Office is investigating and suspecting him of undermining the constitutional order. However, for the second week now, there has been considerable chaos in Bosnia and Herzegovina because it has become very likely that our country's security services have been trivialized to such an extent that it is questionable how much they can be called security services.

The irony, however, is that all these state-level security agencies have been materially equipped and "mentored" by the West for years. Financial and logistical support for security agencies, such as SIPA, was part of that process, with the aim of creating a force capable of maintaining order. But when the moment came for that investment to pay off, the agencies showed that they were either incapable or unwilling to act against key politicians staging a coup.

We can say with certainty that this is not just a failure of the agencies or a symbol of the ethno-party division of the leadership of these agencies – it is a reflection of the serious failure of their mentors. It is in the interest of the citizens of the Western countries from which the mentors of our police agencies came to demand an investigation into their security sector. Because what they have done in Bosnia and Herzegovina can only be assessed as catastrophic.

Moreover, it should not be forgotten that the director of any security agency in Bosnia and Herzegovina could not be appointed without the approval of the US Embassy. Therefore, the question arises as to what kind of personnel American Democrats have brought us, and was there some secret connection precisely during times like this?

The leadership and a key part of the security agencies are undoubtedly on Milorad Dodik's separatist line. One part follows the principles of Dragan Čović's indolence, and the third, de facto Bosniak part, pretends to be dead because it is afraid to take responsibility and decisively threaten to take control and react in a situation where a reaction is necessary.

Likewise, it is unacceptable that the MUP of the RS entity and its leaders stand in protection of the perpetrators of the coup, and that no serious person in the diplomatic-security corps questions what that means. It is even more devastating that no one within the pro-state political corps asks what that means and how to overcome it.

And the RS MUP, at the moment it was announced that it would oppose state bodies in enforcing the law and maintaining order by all means, including armed force, should have been declared a terrorist organization and disempowered and disarmed with the help of EUFOR.

Because, what would have happened if, instead of the dilapidated Ćulum, there had been a professional ready to do his job? If such a thing had happened, we might be reporting from a battlefield today instead of writing analyses, although the fact that it did not happen does not guarantee that we will not be in such a position soon.

If Western diplomacy truly wants to help us, then these are likely the last weeks or days in which they can do so. Because the error in the BiH security system is a product of their actions and their unwillingness to more decisively help build the state in the full sense of the word.

And instead of sending us Koopmans to spout nonsense that the state, on the verge of collapse and war, has not implemented reforms on the European path, it would be wiser to devise how to reactivate the security system and rid it of cadres loyal to separatism like Ćulum.

On the other hand, the High Representative himself, as the most responsible for the state being run by political misfits, when he was already resorting to impositions, could, for example, impose the elimination of cadres incapable of protecting the state, order, and peace, regardless of their religion, nationality, or political affiliation.

Messages that the state must solve the problem with Dodik after seven days of anti-state actions by the BiH security apparatus have become redundant. Americans, British, and Europeans have greatly weakened these state institutions by forcing balances and equalities based on the principles of Our Party and Elmedin Konaković, forgetting that what someone does in state institutions does not necessarily mean they love that state. Because, after the war in BiH, many who wanted to destroy it entered state institutions.

The time for reforms must be stopped; now is the time for accountability. The only question is whose head it will reach first!.