SARAJEVO, Feb 7 (Hina) - Recent arrests of a former member of Bosnia-Herzegovina's Presidency, Ante Jelavic, and of the deputy director of the Interpol Office in Bosnia, Asim Fazlic, should be viewed as a clear sign that nobody will
any longer be a law unto oneself in this country, the international communty's High Representative to Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown said on Saturday.
SARAJEVO, Feb 7 (Hina) - Recent arrests of a former member of
Bosnia-Herzegovina's Presidency, Ante Jelavic, and of the deputy
director of the Interpol Office in Bosnia, Asim Fazlic, should be
viewed as a clear sign that nobody will any longer be a law unto
oneself in this country, the international communty's High
Representative to Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown said on Saturday.#L#
At a news conference he held together with the Bosnian ministerial
council's chairman Adnan Terzic in Sarajevo, Ashdown declined to
comment on charges placed against Jelavic and Fazlic, adidng only that
this was the matter to be addressed by the judiciary and police
investigations. The Briton, however, said that ti was hight time that
Bosnia took more decisive moves so as to tackle organised crime and
corruption if it would like to come closer to the European Union.
It is scandalous that Bosnia-Herzegovina is the only country in Europe
without police force at the state level, Ashdown said.
He and Terzic presented a package of laws aimed at effective struggle
against organised crime.
The chairman of the Council of Ministers announced the beginning of
the functioning of the State Information and Protection Agency (SIPA)
until the end of this month. The SIPA will help co-ordinate police
activities in the country. The agency is expected to fight against
organised crime and terrorism and search war crimes suspects and
criminals involved in arms and drug smuggling. It will include also a
department in charge of prevention of money laundering.
Foreigners are currently employed in the State Prosecutor's Office to
process cases of organised crime and corruption.
(Hina) ms