Zukan's 'Keyboard Lion' Operation: Helez Wages War for Likes, While Dodik Fights for a State!

By: Rasim Belko @rasimbelko

The recent entry of Milorad Dodik and other individuals with warrants into the Kozara barracks in Banja Luka has opened a series of questions that go beyond daily politics. This situation has, more than anything, shown how operationally and normatively uncoordinated the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina are, but also how much individuals in high positions do not know their authorities.

Unfortunately, Defense Minister Zukan Helez has proven to be the most dangerous example of such dilettantism in this story.

Helez, according to his own admission and statements, was ready to engage the Military Police against Dodik — a civilian — forgetting that the Military Police, by law, acts against military personnel and potentially against civilians only if they endanger military values within a military facility. Dodik, no matter how compromised judicially and politically harmful, did not endanger soldiers, facilities, weapons, or military order that day. He entered a manifestation, a bad and politically problematic one — but not militarily risky.

To make matters worse, the BiH Armed Forces are under the civilian command of the Presidency of BiH. Any decision on the potential combat use of the army or a more serious engagement requires the consent of that body. The Minister of Defense is an operational-administrative factor, not the commander of the armed forces. His announcements about arrests, weapons, and extra-institutional actions of the army have only produced political damage and potentially introduced dangerous tensions within the system.

Helez's behavior in this case is a symptom of a wider phenomenon: uneducated politicians in important positions who use the media to put on shows for the public, while neglecting the constitutional architecture of the state. The Minister of Defense must know the principles of army use, the authorities of the Military Police, the procedures for informing the civilian command, and security protocols. If he doesn't know them — he becomes a risk factor, not a security factor.

Without debating Helez's patriotism, it must be remembered that patriotism without knowledge and institutional discipline leads to incidents, and Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot afford such luxuries. Institutions, especially the army, must be depoliticized and operationally precise.

This case opens another important question: where was the Presidency of BiH? Who gave instructions to the Ministry of Defense regarding the announced presence of individuals with warrants at a military event? If they did nothing, the responsibility is also theirs. If they allowed Helez to act arbitrarily, the responsibility is even greater.

In any serious country, civilian control over the army is sacred. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, where political tensions are chronic, it must be doubly strict. The lesson from Turkey in 2016, when a part of the army broke away from civilian control, must be clearly etched into the minds of BiH authorities: an army without clear civilian oversight is a threat, not a guarantee of security.

The Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina must be professional, disciplined, and separated from daily politics. The Minister of Defense must be a systemic operator, not a war commentator on portals. Both Dodik and others with warrants should be arrested — but according to the laws and procedures of civilian institutions, not according to media announcements by ministers who have not read the Defense Law.

If someone needs to be dismissed today, it is not a soldier in the barracks but a politician in a ministerial chair who does not know where their authority ends and responsibility begins. A country is not defended by improvisation and patriotic slogans, but by institutions that know their job. It is evident that Zukan, in the 'Keyboard Lion' operation, is waging a war for likes, while his target Milorad Dodik is fighting for a state, the first Serbian one on this side of the Drina!