The Republic of Srpska

Today, in Banja Luka, Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Srpska, Dragan Lukač, held extended senior staff meeting with the managers within the Ministry of the Interior, where they discussed the work results for the first six months of 2018. At the press conference, Minister said that security situation in the Republic of Srpska was satisfactory and that the previous year had been the most successful according to the results achieved and added that the positive trend continued in this as well. Minister Lukač explained that one of the reasons for achieving excellent results was the reorganization of the Ministry, so each administration is specialized to work on, e.g. solving most complex criminal cases. He said that one of the problems the Ministry was currently facing was the issue of fictitious places of residence in certain municipalities with the intention of realizing the right to vote at the elections. Regarding this issue, he pointed out that the police would control the applications for obtaining permanent place of residence and sanction persons who prove to be fictitiously applying for permanent place of residence with the aim of prevent the abuse of voting rights. Regarding the phenomenon of immigrants on the territory of the Republic of Srpska, Minister said that their number had increased significantly recently, and that the most of the total number of 1,500 that was discovered in the Republic of Srpska was found on the territory of the cities of Bijeljina and Zvornik. He pointed out that the number of immigrants in the Republic of Srpska was probably greater, and added that it was a significant problem the institutions at the level of BiH should be solving in a more organized manner. ‘We have organized around 80 members of the Ministry of the Interior to work together with the members of the Border Police on controlling borders, but here, too, we have encountered certain problems because liabilities related to accommodation and food for our police officers are not being settled and this is an obligation of the Ministry of Security of BiH’, Minister said. Police Director of the Republic of Srpska, Darko Ćulum, said that, during the first 6 months of this year, on the territory of the Republic of Srpska, the total number of 3,804 criminal offences was recorded, which was 13.2% less than in the same period the previous year. He added that 3,192 reports were submitted to the prosecutor’s offices against 3,201 persons. Furthermore, Director Ćulum said that both the number of solved cases where the perpetrator was unknown and the total number of solved cases were 3,2% higher than in the same period the previous year, and that better results had been achieved in the field of uncovering criminal offences related to corruption and narcotics. He pointed out that, of all the narcotic drugs that had been seized, th