SDA HAS NOT BEEN INVITED TO THIS WEEK'S POLICE REFORM MEETING

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia (April 7, 2008) – The SDA Party President Sulejman Tihic stated in the northern Bosnian city of Banja Luka on Saturday that he has not been invited to the political parties leaders’ meeting with the International Community's High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia Miroslav Lajčák on the police reform.

The meeting, according to some announcements, should be held this week. He emphasized that the SDA party’s attitude remains unchanged.

”SDA has not officially received any invitation to the meeting. If we are to talk about the police reform in a wider sense, I am willing to participate. If we are to focus on the two or three variants, proposed by SBiH, SNSD or HDZ, then there is no need for SDA to participate”, Tihic emphasized at a press conference prior to the beginning of the party’s Main Board session.

He emphasized that his party will remain loyal to the attitudes and will not support neither of the three solutions proposed.

Tihic rejected accusations made by some political representatives of the Serbians living in Bosnia, as well as some international community representatives’ accusations that SDA is, by acting that was, blocking Bosnia’s European road.

”They are wrong and I am of the opinion that those parties exactly, together with some of the International Community representatives did not act in accordance to the EU principles and the Mostar Agreement, as well as the Police Reform Implementation Action Plan made in Sarajevo. Only one principle was adopted – Dodik’s principle: there is no EU without the (genocidal Serbian creature in Bosnia) RS”, Tihic said.

Tihic added that he does not mind the existence of the genocidal RS "police" in Bosnia but he does mind that the Mostar Agreement has not been implemented. The agreement states that the entity and cantonal police will be a part of the unified Bosnian state security system.

He added that according to the present solutions, the entity. cantonal and all other police are completely independent; the state level coordination will not have any relevance whatsoever. Local police entities will not be obliged to contact and give any information to the state level institutions.

”Criminals are organized beyond the entities’ lines; we are making local police bodies within the entity and cantonal lines. We have agreed on that in the end. The issue of who is to coordinate the activities has not been supported”, Tihic added.

He agreed that there are some individual joint actions of the police bodies, but the thing is that citizens are not generally satisfied with the results of fight against organized crime, war crimes and corruption.
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