Why did Ćulum secretly visit SIPA yesterday and who is informing him about actions while he is in the service of Dodik and the MUP of Republika Srpska?

By: Amra Vrabac

The resigned director of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), Darko Ćulum, suddenly appeared at the headquarters of this police agency in Lukavica yesterday, and since he resigned on March 18 and requested to be relieved of duty, this is the second time he has appeared "at work".

Ćulum accepted the invitation of the entity's leadership after the adoption of unconstitutional laws in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska at the end of February and moved to the MUP of Republika Srpska as an advisor, requesting to be relieved of his duties as SIPA director. However, the Council of Ministers of BiH did not relieve him because SIPA would remain headless, and there was no agreement from ministers of Serb ethnicity (Košarac and Amidžić) to adopt the information and proposal from the Ministry of Security of BiH, which would have allowed SIPA to continue functioning even after his dismissal, especially since the position of deputy director is vacant after the escape and subsequent dismissal of Zoran Galić. There was also no political will to appoint a new SIPA director, and now this process is further stalled because the SNSD is being eliminated from state government. However, that process is stalled in the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament, where the SNSD and HDZ hold the quorum and do not allow the dismissal of SNSD cadres that have already been voted on in the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament.

By submitting his resignation, Ćulum authorized several individuals to manage SIPA, but none of them have the right to order the use of SIPA's Special Unit, raising the question of whether SIPA has been on autopilot since Ćulum's withdrawal.
Sources from SIPA claim that Ćulum "secretly" appeared in the SIPA building yesterday, he did not enter or leave through the official entrance, and he held a Collegium meeting. This Collegium was held after an attempt by a team of SIPA police officers to serve an arrest warrant to Milorad Dodik in the building of the Government of Republika Srpska in Lukavica on April 23. That attempt was prevented by members of the MUP of Republika Srpska, and dozens of armed police officers were around the Government building, protecting the president of Republika Srpska.

Although there are many open questions surrounding that attempt, one of them is why a joint team of three state police agencies was not formed and why Dodik was not finally arrested. Although SIPA submitted a report to the BiH Prosecutor's Office on the events in front of the Government building of Republika Srpska in Lukavica, it is interesting that Dodik again spoke yesterday at a press conference about the inspectors who were at the scene, highlighting some details that he could only have obtained from SIPA itself. Was that the reason for Ćulum's visit yesterday, and it is unclear how he is still at large, given that he is acting according to unconstitutional laws and following the SNSD's policy, also violating the Law on SIPA. However, prosecutors or the BiH Prosecutor's Office and Chief Prosecutor Milanko Kajganić, who have been investigating something for more than two months with no results while the country sinks deeper, should answer that. Although there is no information on who was at the Collegium with Ćulum, it is a problem if Ćulum is given all information about the activities being undertaken at a time when he has placed himself at the disposal of Dodik and the MUP of Republika Srpska.

Regardless of expectations from the international community, it is increasingly being heard that the Dodik case should be resolved by domestic institutions and that it is an internal issue. However, time shows that domestic institutions either will not or are acting on the orders of those they are supposed to arrest. And there are already more than a dozen individuals suspected of attacking the constitutional order. To date, not a single person has been arrested.

When SIPA handled some of the most complex cases, such as the arrests of war criminals, car thieves, and drug trafficking groups, inspectors were supported by the Special Unit. Today, the Special Unit is in winter slumber. Other two state police agencies can also provide assistance to SIPA. But someone needs to coordinate that. However, annual leave and May Day holidays are underway, so dealing with the destroyers of the constitutional order and the Dayton Peace Agreement is on hold.

What is clear even to a layman is that this situation is not sustainable in the long run. Neither when it comes to Dodik, nor when it comes to SIPA. Nor should this become a story about the Dodik-SIPA relationship, because it is not. This case concerns the relationship between the state of BiH and its institutions, including the citizens whom these institutions are supposed to protect, and Dodik, and if you will, the entity of Republika Srpska.

If anyone was counting on EUFOR, Christian Schmidt, or someone else to arrest Dodik, too much time has passed, and it is clear that this scenario is not an option. But it is also not an option for SIPA to continue its operations under dual leadership, divided staff, constant tension, and the possibility of someone coming to Lukavica and evicting them from this police agency because Republika Srpska enforces its laws on 49 percent of the territory. And if anyone is waiting for such a moment to act, then it will be too late for any action. Then no one can guarantee that there will not be hotheads, because propaganda for such a thing has long since begun and is constantly being fueled.