Their people at strategic posts: For now, the moves made by Lagumdzija's social democrats and Silajdzic's centralizers towards the former SDA officials remind one of the old saying "take me, but so that I remain a virgin". The only obstacle to the Alliance for Changes in "cleaning" of the cantonal and federation administration, police, the Army of BH and judiciary from the reliable SDA servants is in the catastrophic selection of cadre. Most of the new officials appointed by the SBiH or the SDP are either the former members of the SDA or politicians who have thoroughly discredited themselves over the last decade of the communist rule. Links between the organized crime and government institutions during the 1990's were the basic cause of chaos and hopelessness that is now lived by the nations of Bosnia-Hercegovina. That is why it was to be expected that the SDP and the SBiH would first reorganize the police and judiciary in order to use legal mechanisms to stop crime generating practices of the SDA. But, exactly the opposite happened.
Former director of the BH border service Muhamed Besic became the Federation Police Minister. This experienced professional policeman has several fundamental drawbacks. Besic was suitable for the former communist authorities and was also their Minister of Police. Then he became a SDA favorite and was adopted by their party run intelligence service organized within the ministry for foreign affairs. In the ministry he also founded the diplomatic intelligence service, which persisted until 1998, although it was not supposed to exist based on the post-war organization of the ministry. Overnight, Besic became a favorite of Petritsch, Lagumdzija and Silajdzic. The unanswered question is how can someone present himself as an apolitical policeman and at the same time be suitable for totally different political concepts of communists, nationalists and social-democrats?
Former SDA Federation Police Minister Mehmed Zilic overnight became the candidate of the SBiH for the duty of the director of the BH border service. The same happened to the AID director, Kemal Ademovic, so that suddenly he is now also an Alliance candidate for the director of the BH border service. It has been forgotten that Zilic, his and Besic's deputy for crime Faik Lusija and Ademovic were the main "culprits" for the police-intelligence games used by the SDA to firmly hold on to power. All three of them are now favorites of the Alliance parties, even though they carefully followed, wiretapped, blackmailed, and tried to discredit their leaders.
Badgers in nonexistent court: Another part of the story are criminal charges that have since the election been filed against the best known names from the political and criminal scene of the former authorities. Former Federation Prime Minister Edhem Bicakcic, Finances Minister Dragan Covic, his deputy Muhamed Alijagic, directors of Fruteks and Tobacco Factory Sarajevo Alija and Mirsad Delimustafic and their BH Bank, are only some of the people awaiting trials. But nothing will come out of that, as the Federation parliament was unable to this week appoint the new federation prosecutor and his deputy. The Federation prosecutor, Suljo Babic was on vacation because his tenure has expired, and thick files with documentation about crime and financial police investigations are collecting dust in his office. Authorities are facing problems in their relations with the best known BH diplomat in the U.N., Muhamed Sacirbegovic, because it is unclear whether he is a citizen of the United States of America, where the authorities are prosecuting him for gambling related acts, or of Bosnia-Hercegovina where he is being prosecuted for embezzling more than $3 million.
It still hasn't occurred to the new authorities to suggest replacements for the current cantonal and municipal prosecutors, if for no other than for hygienic reasons. The prosecutors have "gone bad" and started "stinking" after sitting in office for many years so that only after the change of power they recalled that the former political power brokers from the SDA and the HDZ were the source of tolerance of the looting of the state resources and abuse of power. But the Alliance apparently wants to respect "independence of the judiciary", as if certain prosecutors and judges were not appointed based on their political credentials and affiliations instead of professional criteria.
But in the judiciary the same people remain at the same positions as "proven" fighters for justice.
Army of BH and how to change it: If the HDZ and the SDA made direct decisions in one sphere then that would have to be the appointment of the Army of BH and HVO officers. While the new Defense Minister Mijo Anic is fighting a fierce battle against "self-managing" officers, his deputy Ferid Buljubasic does not have such problems. Buljubasic simply believes that the difference between the Army of BH and the HVO is that the latter was always the party army of the HDZ, while the Army of BH was never a party army of the SDA. But only fools would dare claim that Rasim Delic, Atif Dudakovic, Sakib Mahmuljin, and other officers and junior officers did not give loyalty oaths directly to Alija Izetbegovic, the Bosniak leader and the president of the SDA. All officers who today work for the Defense Ministry and the Federation Army Chiefs of Staff got their jobs based on the apolitical loyalty to the Bosniak political leadership. Deputy Minister Buljubasic on the other hand sees in them proven professionals, but has failed to answer the following question: who controls the Army of BH and who leads the military policy - the SDA or the multi-ethnic and secular Alliance for Changes?!
Future outcomes: All that is (not) happening between the "warring" Bosniak parties the SDA, the SDP and the SBiH is an indication to what extent Ante Jelavic actually made a mistake when choosing his political tactic. If the HDZ stayed in the Federation institutions, that party would be able to legally accomplish the autonomy for which it now has to fight in the streets and in front of barracks. The SDA was smarter. It infiltrated its most reliable men in the new authorities, whereby the SDP is forced to make tacit concessions as Lagumdzija failed to achieve the expected overwhelming victory in the last year's elections. Thus, generally condemned "nationalist parties that are destroying the essence of the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Bosnian state with centuries-long tradition" have at least among Bosniaks taken on new ideological forms. The goal is to prepare conditions to spread disunity in the Alliance until the next general elections in November 2002 and to portray it as incompetent with assistance of social disturbances and chaos that is slowly but surely spreading through the Federation. This way the Alliance will seem as a much worse solution than the former nationalist authorities. Without radical showdown with the SDA, the way it has been done with the HDZ, a new coalition government of the SDA and the HDZ can be expected after the next election.