Police Row Strains Bosnia's Federation Govt

A row over policing between the two main parties in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has raised questions over whether the new government of the entity will survive.

Ministers from the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, were outvoted by their coalition colleagues among the Social Democrats on January 24, with the support two smaller parties in the government, the Croatian Party of Rights, HSP, and the People's party Work for Progress, NSRZB.

The SDA announced weeks ago that their ministers could not support the new law on interior affairs, demanding crucial changes.

The root of the SDA objection is that the new law says the director of police in the Federation will be chosen or dismissed by the Interior Ministry and the government and not by the parliament of the Federation as is now the case.

The SDA says that will undermine the independence of the entity police and that the Interior ministry, and Social Democrats, who hold the interior ministry, will effectively take over the control of the police in the Federation.

SDA ministers said they had some 20 amendments to the law. The SDP interior minister, Predrag Kurtes, who initiated the law, said they will reconsider them before the law is sent to the parliament of the Federation.

The SDA and SDP are two main parties in the Federation and it is the first time since the entity government was appointed in March 2011 that the two parties diametrically opposed each other over a law.

Adil Osmanovic, SDA member and the entity's refugees minister, said it was unusual for the government to send the law to parliament before it was agreed within the coalition.

“It is no good that they [SDP and other ministers] send the law to parliament and hope it will be supported by the opposition,” Osmanovic said, adding that he fears for the future of the coalition if his party is outvoted with the help of the opposition in the entity parliament.

Interior Minister Kurtes said that the law will guarantee the independence of the police and emphasized that the police will remain independent in their work on investigating, specially terrorism and criminal cases.  

The fight between the two main parties in the Federation entity and the possible reconstruction of the entity government, which is increasingly mentioned by politicians in the past weeks, will show its real face when the law on interior affairs comes to the parliament of the Federation.