Employees of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) at the headquarters of the Regional Office in Banja Luka have been ordered to vacate the building and collect their personal belongings, confirmed three SIPA employees to journalists from the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIN).
The order was given verbally, and after leaving the premises, the building was to be secured by police officers from the Republika Srpska Ministry of the Interior (MUPRS), the employees told the journalists. One of them stated that the order came from SIPA Director Darko Ćulum.
Upon learning of this, journalists contacted the Regional Office in Banja Luka, where they were told that they “could not provide any information” and were instructed to contact Sarajevo. When asked if anyone was still in the building, the phone was abruptly hung up. The office in Sarajevo declined to comment.
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Ćulum did not respond to calls from journalists.
In response to the incident, the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina requested a statement from EUFOR, which was confirmed to CIN by the institution.
On February 27, the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska (NSRS) passed a set of laws in an expedited process, including one that bans the operations of the Court and Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (VSTV), and SIPA within the entity’s territory.
As a result, the Ministry of the Interior of the Republika Srpska (MUPRS) instructed SIPA employees from the Republika Srpska to submit requests to the “nearest police station” in the entity in order to be “transferred” and establish employment within the MUPRS.
This move came just a day after Milorad Dodik, the President of the Republika Srpska, was sentenced by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina to one year in prison and a six-year ban from holding office for defying the decisions of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Shortly thereafter, the authorities of the Republika Srpska, led by its president, initiated the dismantling of the existing judicial and law enforcement system in Bosnia and Herzegovina by passing a series of laws, coupled with threats of imprisonment for employees of state institutions who fail to comply with the order to leave and transfer to the entity’s institutions.
