Selmo Cikotić


Selmo Cikotić is a Bosnian politician, member of the Party of Democratic Action and former Army officer who is the 7th and current Minister of Security. He was also the 2nd Minister of Defence, a post he was appointed to in January 2007, but unable to take up officially until April 2007, when a ban on former army officers performing defence-related civilian duties expired. His term as Minister of Defence ended on 12 January 2012.
In February 1993, he was made commander of operational group Zapad of the 3rd Corps of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Bugojno.
Cikotić served as the military attaché at the embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United States in Washington, D.C. from December 1994 to 1997. As Brigadier General he was enrolled at the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in June 1997, before being expelled as a result of unconfirmed accusations made by Croatian officials that he commanded soldiers who tortured and killed people in and around Bugojno.
From 2000 to 2004, he was the Commander of the 1st Corps of the Federation Army, and from 2004 to 2007 CEO of OKI in Sarajevo.
In June 2007, he jointly attended a Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council at the NATO headquarters in Brussels with the Serbian defence minister Dragan Šutanovac, together they expressed their governments' wish to join NATO as soon as possible.
In March 2008 he led a five member delegation to Pakistan, to discuss "bilateral cooperation between the two Muslim countries".
Cikotić has a master's degree from the University of Sarajevo in 2004 and is fluent in English.