Why Everyone Should Be Like Dragan Mektić

“There is less and less rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, “BiH is a broken country”, “Is there anyone normal in this BiH”, “The BiH Prosecutor’s Office has become a place where combinations are made in the worst possible way for false reporting and false prosecution of some people”, are just some of the facts that Dragan Mektić, Minister of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been stating with full justification in recent months.

Some accuse him of exaggerating, of going beyond what is permissible, but they do not understand that he is simply doing his job, because who is more relevant in the country to assess the security situation if not the Minister of Security. And, if there is no rule of law, there is no security!

It is devastating, however, that Mektić is alone. We have not yet heard any of his colleagues express support for Mektić, and we get daily proof that he was right. The latest in a series is the alleged wiretapping affair of acting Chief Prosecutor Gordana Tadić and member of the HJPC Ružica Jukić. The Prosecutor’s Office even claimed the document was authentic, and Mektić openly told them – you cannot conduct expertise. It will turn out that Mektić was right. The document was falsified, and a new stain was cast on the country’s highest judicial institution! Tadić, according to connoisseurs of the situation, should resign immediately! However, we will certainly not see that scenario.

Years will pass, as before, and only a few analysts and historians will remember these affairs. There is less and less time for serious reform of the judiciary and general personnel cleanup. Precisely because of this, but also other compromising events, this institution is losing credibility.

Is it necessary to remind that not a single prominent name among the persons arrested and tried for corruption, abuse of power, embezzlement of money, has ended with a conviction, and dozens have been arrested.

What kind of rule of law are we talking about when indictments fall for trivial reasons, disappearance and loss of documentation from cases, with the note that the culprits were never found.

The most striking case is from 2006, when Dragan Čović was provisionally sentenced to five years in prison by the BiH Court, because as the Minister of Finance of the FBiH, he abused his position and enabled some companies to avoid paying customs duties amounting to tens of millions of KM. This case was never concluded because the original documentation from this case disappeared. Culprits unknown.

Nedžad Branković was also tried several times (acquitted each time), after which the cult sentence was created: “Everything according to the law”. Namely, when responding to accusations that he benefited from politics, Branković always gives the same answer – everything I did was according to the law. If someone can prove otherwise, let them prove it. For now, prosecutors are losing the race against crime and corruption.

Why then is Mektić accused of “destroying the state” even though all these examples show that he is telling the truth. Who actually destroyed the rule of law? And it is the basis for every democratic country, especially one that aspires to join the European Union.

The BiH Prosecutor’s Office has become a place where combinations are made in the worst possible way for false reporting and false prosecution of some people. Živko Budimir and Šemsudin Mehmedović felt this well. And at lower levels, sport fishing is also present. We all still remember Hamdija Lipovača.

And the fish always stinks from the head, so it is expected that when “things are not right in the BiH Prosecutor’s Office, they are not right anywhere.”

It is only surprising that even those who are full of praise for the state are silent, because they know, as we all do, that without strong judiciary and rule of law, there is no “s” of a state.