State Parliament astonished: Who is secretly dividing BiH Border Police?

The agenda of the 30th Joint Commission for Defense and Security of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly held on 26 October, included inter alia information about the visit of the commission to the Regional Office of the Border Police South – Capljina on 12 July, the visit to the Regional Office of the Border Police Northwest Gradiska on 20 September, and the visit to the Unit of the Border Police Airport Tuzla on 21 September.

The Commission criticized the BiH Border Police management for their work and the situation as a whole in this agency. One of the problems listed by the Commission was the book of regulations of the organization that is under preparation.

The management reported that they have started implementing reforms aimed at cutting down the number of managers, 'generalists', as they say, as they lack specialists in the field. Downsizing of administration has been also requested. Allegedly, there is a joint project of the border police and the German state police focusing on 'modernization of the BiH Border Police management'.

What is essentially behind the reform? The Border Police wants to create 5 new field offices, in addition to the existing 6. The problem is that they aim at hiring local population, which means selecting officers from one ethnic group only at all 11 border crossings. Their Sarajevo HQ would respect the 1991 census when hiring.

Therefore, the structure of their Sarajevo office would have 44% of Bosniaks, 31% of Serbs and 17% of Croats. All other offices would be filled by the local Croats and Serbs.

The Border Police is a state institution which must maintain its multiethnic structure with educated and competent staff as the only criteria for the border crossings.

Now it seems that neither the State Parliament nor the Joint Commission for Defense and Security were aware of the 'modernization process' which has been going on for some time.

How is it possible to keep something like that a secret for such long time?

It is a common opinion in the Border Police that, the deputy director, Zijad Srabovic does not have a good grip on his job, that he delegated most of his responsibilities to Vladimir Popovic, project coordinator. Practically, it is Popovic who is taking over the management of the Border Police and who has the final say in the absence of the director. Bosniak personnel in the Border police are people-pleasers, and Srabovic boasts about having 'agreed everything with Asim Sarajlic, the president of SDA Personnel'.

It remains unclear how one gets to make senseless decisions in one of the most important state institutions without consulting expert opinion, or without involving the BiH Parliament before the implementation.  

These changes would have as consequences nationalizing and thus division of the Border Police, which as yesterday seemed impossible.