| Author (Person) | Cronin, David |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.10, No.29, 2.9.04 |
| Publication Date | 02/09/2004 |
| Content Type | News |
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By David Cronin Date: 02/09/04 BOSNIA'S bitterly divided political entities need to be linked together with a single police force, according to the head of an EU-sponsored task force analyzing the country's security needs. Belgium's former premier Wilfried Martens said that a common force for the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska and the Muslim and Croat federation in Bosnia was essential to meet the country's EU membership ambitions and to attract foreign investors to the war-ravaged Balkan state. "It is also the wish of the great majority of people," he told European Voice Martens has been appointed by Paddy Ashdown, the EU and UN's special representative in Bosnia, to chair a task force on policing there. The 12-member team, which also includes Kevin Carty, the head of the EU Police Mission (EUPM) in the country, is expected to finalize its recommendations in mid-December The call for a common police force runs counter to the demands of Bosnian Serb hardliners, who want Republika Srpska to be fully divorced from the Muslim and Croat enclave. According to Martens, there needs to be less "political intervention" in Bosnian policing. He praised the move taken by Ashdown in July to sack the Bosnian Serb police chief Zoran Djeric, over allegations that he was trying to shield Europe's most wanted fugitive Radovan Karadzic from arrest. In addition, revamped police structures should be smaller and more professional than those currently in place. Bosnia now has 18,000 police officers for a population of around four million. "There are too many people in the police," he added. "Everybody accepts that." Among the problems that will have to be addressed as part of the shake-up, he said, are the corruption in the country's police and the related problem of low pay. The EUPM has previously acknowledged that rank-and-file officers struggle to survive on present wages and are therefore given to accepting bribes. Martens said the common police force would be dedicated to fighting organized crime, including drug-trafficking and weapons-smuggling, as well as apprehending indicted war criminals. He envisages that the Belgian model of policing - administered on both a federal and local level - could be at least partly applied. His task force is also studying if the experience of policing in Switzerland, Slovenia, the Netherlands and the UK could be relevant to Bosnia Nicholas Whyte, a Balkans specialist with the International Crisis Group, agreed that a common police force should be set up. "There is a single defence ministry in Bosnia, even though ten years ago the different armies were quite literally fighting each other," he commented. "So if they can have a single defence ministry, I don't see why the police should be any different." Interview with Wilfried Martens, former Belgian prime minister, who has been appointed International Chairman of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Police Restructuring Commission. |
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| Source Link | http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Subject Categories | Politics and International Relations |
| Countries / Regions | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
