ANDAN: INCOMPLETE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF BIH’S ATTEMPTS TO UNITARIZE POLICE UNACCEPTABLE

BANJA LUKA, APRIL 3 /SRNA/ – Former director of the Republika Srpska Police Dragomir Andan said that the competences of the Republika Srpska Ministry of Interior /MoI/ must be preserved despite constant pressures and intentions of hostile Sarajevo, certain foreign factors, and the incomplete Constitutional Court of BiH to reform and thereby unitarize police forces at the BiH level to the detriment of Republika Srpska.

Stressing that police competences should remain at the entity level, Andan told SRNA that otherwise a single police force at the level of BiH would be created, and that Republika Srpska would practically cease to exist. "The basic and original competence of the Republika Srpska MoI has always been to maintain records, process and personalize personal documents, while the BiH Agency for Identification Documents, Registers and Data Exchange is only a technical service that should technically process that data. Therefore, what the incomplete Constitutional Court of BiH is doing now, in terms of strengthening this agency, is unconstitutional," Andan explained. He said that these pressures aim to reduce the Republika Srpska MoI to "a baton, a stick and a walkie-talkie". Data that fall under the jurisdiction of entity-level interior ministries must remain within their competence, Andan emphasized, adding that Republika Srpska citizens must always know that without the Republika Srpska Police there can be no survival of the Republic. "The police are a pillar of the defence of Srpska and one of the guarantors of peace in BiH. At least we, police veterans, will never allow these unconstitutional court decisions to be implemented," Andan said. The incomplete Constitutional Court of BiH declared several provisions of the Republika Srpska Law on Police and Internal Affairs unconstitutional.