Back to a time of political control over the police

Banja Luka, November 15, 2011 – Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) strongly condemns the decision of the Government of the Canton Sarajevo to adopt amendments to the Law on Internal Affairs, according to which the existence of the Independent Commission for police commissioner elections is to be abolished, and that the Parliamentary Committee, composed of representatives of political parties will be in charge of police commissioner elections.

TI BiH believes that such law calls into question the independence of police commissioner elections and its work, allowing partisanship in elections, what is particularly dangerous for police work and its efficiency that should have full independence and autonomy in law enforcement.

On the other part, the adoption process itself was extremely non-transparent, according to which interested political actors and the police to which the Law applies were not involved in a public hearing.  It should be noted that the Government of the Canton Sarajevo turned a deaf ear to appeals of the head of the EU Delegation in BiH, Peter Sorensen, and the High Representative in BiH, Valentin Inzko, and that the amendments to the Law are inconsistent with democratic principles and their pleadings to wait for the European Commission’s opinion on the harmonization with European practices and Venice Commission’s analysis.   The Government of the Canton Sarajevo has adopted the amendments to the Law on Internal Affairs without a detailed analysis and a public hearing under the emergency procedure, and it has also announced amendments to the Law at the level of  FBiH.

TI BiH notes that such practice brings BiH back at a time of political control over the police and may lead to the pernicious instrumentality of the police for political purposes.  At the same time, TI BiH urges competent authorities to prevent the introduction of such amendments to the Law of the FBiH , as has already been announced, since it would mean a complete return to the dark history when the police were accountable to the party but not citizenry, and was obliged to fulfill the commandments of the party leaders.