Bosnian border police learn the ropes on Swiss frontier

A Bosnian border officer (right) inspects a suspicious package under the guidance of a Swiss customs specialist Keystone

Recruits to Bosnia's new border police are in Switzerland to learn how to cope with the demands of the job. The course, which ends on Sunday, is part of a SFr500,000 Swiss programme aimed at strengthening government institutions.

The 24 members of the Bosnian State Border Service are working alongside their Swiss counterparts at Zurich airport as well as at various customs offices along the border.

The course, funded by the Swiss foreign ministry’s Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), aims not only to equip the Bosnians for service along their own borders, but also to turn them into instructors so they in turn can train their colleagues back home.

Bosnia/Herzegovina became a sovereign state with its own borders in 1995, following the signing of the Dayton peace agreement, which ended the war. The State Border Service is one of the few authorities organised at national level, bringing Serbs, Croats and Bosnian police officers under a central command.

swissinfo