The Republic of Srpska

Today, in Zalužani, near Banja Luka, members of the Republic of Srpska Ministry of the Interior realized the demonstration exercise ‘Crowd control – training for instructors’. The exercise was demonstrated on the occasion of ending the training supported by the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) of the US Department of Justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina, intended for the members of the Special Police Unit, support units and special forces of the Republic of Srpska Ministry of the Interior. Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Srpska, Mr. Dragan Lukač, said that this activity is a part of the cooperation with ICITAP, and that the plan is to train 1,000 police officers for crowd control and control of public peace and order. ‘We hope that, after this training, we will equip support units like Special Police Unit and that we will be able to control any negative movements in order to protect citizens and facilities’, Minister Lukač said.đ Minister Lukač added that ICITAP includes equipping as well, and that equipping of support units and Special Police Unit with new uniforms was almost finished. Police Director, Mr. Gojko Vasić, said that this training and equipping would be very helpful and that the next aim is training police officers to control crowd in a legal and regulated manner so people’s lives and material values would be protected from riots. ICITAP Director for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Charles Bennett said that this program was a model for training police forces in BIH with the purpose of controlling citizens’ safety in any emergency situation.