Republika Srpska police

The trial in absentia of Davor Dragicevic began on Tuesday in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka on charges of slandering three senior police officers with comments accusing them of wrongdoing in the investigation into the death of his son David.

Concerns have been raised about Republika Srpska's plan to inaugurate a new 'gendarmerie' instead of setting up a reservist police force - a proposal that was dropped on Monday after widespread criticism.

There were 400 reservist police officers in Visegrad before the war, and the force was multi-ethnic. However, as the conflict began, 183 more officers were recruited by the Serb-run police station in the town.

A number of them had criminal records, said Huso Kurspahic, the former commander of the police station in Medjedja, near Visegrad.

Republika Srpska police on parade. Photo: EPA/Vladimir Stojakovic.

Parliament in Bosnia's Serb-dominated Republika Srpska on Tuesday is set to discuss a controversial draft law to introduce a new reservist police force, a move seen as a security threat by the Bosniak and Croat minorities living in the entity.

In his first television appearance on Wednesday evening since he went into hiding on December 30, Davor Dragicevic accused the authorities in Republika Srpska of seeking to kill him, after daily protests over the death of his 21-year-old son sparked widespread public anger in Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity.

The six policeman were arrested on Wednesday evening on suspicion of involvement in the armed robbery from an armoured vehicle on September 22 last year, local media reported, quoting police department sources.

The men are reported to have ambushed the vehicle on the highway between Banja Luka and Gradiska and stolen around 300,000 euros.

BANJALUKA - Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic have condemned the April 27 terrorist act in which one Republika Srpska police officer was killed and two others were wounded in an attack on a police station in Zvornik.