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The Joint Presidents agree to support the
establishment of a State Border Service (SBS) as specified in the framework put
forward by the High Representative, with the understandings set forth below:
- The SBS is a state-level institution, which will be directed by the
Ministry of Civil Affairs and Communications. It will be headed by a Director
with two Deputies, appointed by the BiH Presidency, and drawn equally from the
constituent peoples of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Director and Deputies shall
rotate responsibilities every eight months.
- The SBS shall have only those duties and authorities set forth in the
draft law as necessary for the fulfillment of its task of protecting the
borders of BiH. These duties shall include in particular:
- police surveillance of the borders
- police control of cross-border traffic as well as prevention of danger
within its geographic area of responsibility, including;
- inspection of border-crossing documents as well as of authorization
for crossing the border,
- apprehension or prevention of nonpermitted entry into BiH,
- search for persons within the border zone.
- The responsibilities of t the border zone.
The responsibilities of the SBS will extend to 10kms from the international
border of BiH, except in those cases where the distance to the entity boundary
line is less than 10kms, in which case the responsibilities of the SBS will
extend to half the distance from the international border to the entity boundary
line.
The main headquarters of the SBS will be located in Sarajevo. Field offices
will be established as required, and will report to SBS headquarters.
The ethnic composition of the personnel of the SBS shall be based on the
1991 census according to the following criteria:
- the main headquarters will reflect the BiH-wide distribution;
- the field offices will reflect the ethnic distribution of the regions or
cantons in which they are situated;
- the representation of any one of the constituent peoples of BiH at each
office level shall in no event be more than 2/3 or less than 10 percent of
total personnel;
- all SBS units will be fully integrated and members of any ethnicity may
serve at any point on the border.
The Presidents agree that the SBS legislation pursuant to
this agreement will be submitted to the BiH parliament by November 24, 1999, and
that the first units will be deployed by December 31, 1999 regardless.
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