Bosnian Security Minister Axed Over Protests

The Bosnian parliament’s House of Peoples on Tuesday confirmed the dismissal of Security Minister Fahrudin Radoncic, citing his responsibility for the unrest in February.

The House of Peoples, one of two chambers of Bosnia’s parliament, confirmed the dismissal of Fahrudin Radoncic on April 29, citing his responsibility for public unrest and attacks on state institutions in February.

Confirmation of the decision on Tuesday came with seven delegates voting for, two against and two abstaining.

The initiative for Radoncic’s dismissal came from members of Bosnia’s main Bosniak party, the Party of Democratic Action, SDA.

‘During the protests of citizens, a large number of persons were hurt and numerous institutions were damaged,’ the initiative said.

‘Several hundred people were hurt among whom were a large number of policemen, while fires caused great damage to the building of the Presidency and to the buildings of governments of cantons and municipalities,’ it added.

‘The flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina was burned,’ it continued.

The initiative, originally proposed in the House of Representatives in March, also said that the security situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina on February 7 had been significantly undermined, blaming the Security Minister for this development.

‘The Security Minister did not take all necessary moves in his jurisdiction to protect personal property, the security of citizens and state property,’ the initiative for the dismissal said.

Radoncic said after the protests that he had not wanted to instruct the police to beat its own people, and he did not have supreme jurisdiction over all the moves of the police.

On Tuesday, he said he was glad he had been dismissed from the government, adding that his work had been praised by many and that his dismissal came from the three least popular politicians in the country.

‘Those are Izetbegovic, Lagumdzija and Milorad Dodik,’ Radoncic said,referring to Bakir Izetbegovic of SDA, Zlatko Lagumdzija of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, and Milorad Dodik, President of Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD.

‘In that sence I can be very satisfied,” he added.

“They declared a justified anti-corruption protest on the part of citizen to be terrorism and asked me to set up a crisis headquarters,’ he noted.

Concluding that one could see ‘who was with the people and who against the people’, Radoncic said that he was glad to be out of office as he now had more time for what would be his ‘victorious election campaign’.

Radoncic is head of the Alliance for a Better Future, SBB.