Yesterday, Republika Srpska held a ceremony to present the RS gendarmerie unit - a new organizational unit within the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which drew criticism from Bosniak politicians.
Serbian member of the BiH Presidency, Milorad Dodik, said that the formation of the gendarmerie unit "sends a message that we want stability and peace as a priority".
"This is also a message that we are also ready to face any challenges that may come from any side, such as endangering the constitutional order or the safety of each of our citizens," Dodik told reporters after the ceremonial line-up of the gendarmerie at the Training Center in Beta reported to those in Zaluža near Banjaluka.
He pointed out that the RS is not giving up on the formation of a reserve police force.
Answering a journalist's question about the difference between the gendarmerie and the reserve police force, Dodik replied that "we will wait for the opportunity to form a reserve police force of the Srpska, because it has proven to be the best way to defend the territory and security of the RS".
The authorities in the RS had previously announced the formation of a reserve police force, which was supposed to number around a thousand members, but it gave up on it under pressure from the international community. Associations of war victims condemned that proposal because members of the reserve police force participated in war crimes. International representatives warned that the RS should not even form a gendarmerie unit, given that the gendarmerie also has the characteristics of a military unit.
The Vice-President of the Bosniak Republic of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ramiz Salkić, said that the formation of the gendarmerie in the RS could be more dangerous than the previously announced formation of the reserve police force in this entity.
He believes that the gendarmerie in the RS "should in the future serve to protect and support the realization of certain political ideas and the achievement of political goals".
"A unit that is well equipped, trained and trained, although numerically much smaller than the reserve police force, can be much more dangerous if the system is misused against a target group," said Salkic, Sarajevo media reported.
According to him, the formation of the gendarmerie in the RS shows that the government in that entity "is not giving up on the establishment of armed formations as a counterpart to other armed formations in BiH".
He assessed yesterday's deployment of the gendarmerie as a "continuation of militarization in this entity".
The Minister of Internal Affairs of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Aljoša Čampara, said yesterday in Sarajevo that the formation of the RS MUP gendarmerie represents "a clumsy attempt to get out of the unpleasant situation with the unsuccessful formation of the reserve police force of the RS".
He said that it is not about expanding the capacities of the MUP of the RS, but about forming a new unit from existing employees.
According to him, in this way, they want to show the electorate in the RS that it is a replacement for the reserve police force that they could not form.
Čapara added that this does not change anything fundamentally in the MUP of the RS itself, but it can lead to the disruption of interpersonal relations and the creation of fear among returnees.
"That is all that the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina do not need, instead of turning to the fight against corruption and organized crime," said Champara for the FENA agency.
The Minister of Internal Affairs of the RS, Dragan Lukač, stated that the gendarmerie unit "was not formed to wage war against anyone, but is tasked with protecting the safety of the RS and its citizens."
"Whatever initiative you start in Srpska, you always encounter condemnations, criticism, uproar and hysteria coming from Sarajevo. We should not pay attention to that," said the president of RS Željka Cvijanović.
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