The High Representative received a letter today from RS Minister of Interior Darko Matijasevic in response to a letter sent to the Minister on 21 September, in which the High Representative asked him to provide an explanation for the reasons behind a press conference held by the RS Policy in Pale on 9 September.
While the High Representative is still analyzing the report, he said that he was fully satisfied with the response.
In his letter, Mr Matijasevic confirmed that he took “OHR concerns, those of your Deputy Larry Butler, and those of EUPM Commissioner Carty, extremely seriously.” He said that “as Minister of the Interior, my responsibility is to ensure that information coming from the police is handled in a professional manner. I fully accept that in this situation, the information on potential crimes that have been committed released in the press conference should have been passed directly, and confidentially, to the prosecutors. I deeply regret that this did not happen”
The High Representative said that he accepted Minister Matijasevic’s reassurances that there was no political motivation behind holding this press conference as it was clear that the Minister understood that this action could have been read as political interference by the Ministry of Interior, especially coming the day before the last round of police reform negotiations.
The High Representative said that he was confident that Matijasevic would personally undertake to ensure that he would uphold his office in the future in full respect of professional policing standards.