SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Thousands protested in a dozen Bosnian cities Monday to demand that politicians be replaced by non-partisan experts who can better address the nearly 40 percent unemployment and rampant corruption.
It was the sixth day of the worst unrest the Balkan country has seen since the end of the 1991-95 Bosnian war, which killed 100,000.
„My father, mother and brother are unemployed,“ said Meliha, a 34-year-old former art professor who earns 7 euros ($9.55) a day waiting tables. She refused to give her last name fearing she would lose that job as well. „I’ve had enough!“
Two elderly people held a banner noting that one politician’s monthly salary equals four years of the average pension payment.
Protesters say overpaid politicians are obsessed with inter-ethnic bickering.
„They are living in a different world, completely disconnected from the people,“ said Anes Podic, a computer engineer without a steady job.
Protesters have gathered daily by the presidency in Sarajevo, the capital, and in a dozen other cities. They set the presidency and other government buildings ablaze on Friday, with graffiti on one reading: „He who sows hunger, reaps anger.“
Local governments in five cities, including Sarajevo, have resigned long before October general elections.
The peace deal that ended the war created a complex political system in which more than 150 ministries govern Bosnia’s 4 million people. Corruption is widespread and high taxes eat away at paychecks. One in five Bosnian lives below the poverty line.
Svjetlana Nedimovic, an unemployed political scientist, accused the European Union — whose 28 foreign ministers were discussing Bosnia on Monday — of turning its back on her country even as it supports protesters in Ukraine.
„We tried elections, peaceful protests — nothing worked,“ said Nedimovic, 40. „All those who were teaching us democracy are now bailing out.“
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2. 2. 2014 afp
Hooligans injure three at Sarajevo gay film festival
Hooligans wearing hoods and balaclavas injured three people on Saturday when they burst into a movie theatre hosting a gay film festival in the Bosnian capital, police said.
„Several hooligans entered the Kriterion cinema during the festival. Three people were injured and taken to a hospital, but their lives are not in danger,“ a police official, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP.
The official said the police were gathering information about the incident and would decide later whether charges would be filed.
Organisers of the three-day event, which opened on Friday, could not be immediately reached for comment, but a cinema employee said „ten to 15 hooded people wearing balaclavas entered the movie theatre.“
The hooligans „did not break anything, but they were yelling and intimidating participants who attended a debate which followed the screening of a movie,“ he told AFP.
The festival, dubbed „Merlinka“ and organised by both Bosnian and Serbian gay rights groups, plans to show some 30 movies on the rights and culture of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people.
Bosnia is a largely conservative Muslim country and the capital Sarajevo has usually been hostile towards hosting events linked to homosexuality.
The only attempt to organise a Gay Pride march and a festival in 2008 ended up in violence which left eight people injured. At the time dozens of radical Islamists attacked the participants at the opening of an exhibition on the eve of the march, which in the end did not take place.
6. 2. 2014
14 wounded as unpaid Bosnian workers clash with police
Bosnian workers angry over unpaid salaries tried to break into a regional government building Wednesday, throwing stones and eggs at police in clashes that injured 14 people, mostly policemen.
Police arrested 22 people over the protest violence in the northeastern town of Tuzla, officials said.
„Ten policemen were injured, two of them seriously, as well as four demonstrators,“ Tuzla police spokesman Izudin Saric told AFP.
The clashes erupted when about 600 people tried to break into a regional administration headquarters in Tuzla, lobbing projectiles at police preventing them from entering the building.
The protesters accused the authorities of fraudulently privatising a number of factories once owned by the state and demanded payment of salaries delayed for months.
„I cannot stand it anymore, I have nothing to eat,“ one of the protesters screamed.
The unemployment rate in Bosnia, a Balkan country of 3.8 million people, is 44 percent.
6. 2. 2014 FENA
Citizens throwing rocks, one window broken
Citizens who gathered in Sarajevo to support Tuzla protests but also to express their own dissatisfaction started throwing rocks, eggs and bottles at the Cantonal Government building.
One window has been broken.
FENA reporter reports that there is no police at the location where the citizens have gathered.
„We have been sold out, they are stealing from us and we are being quiet“, citizens are shouting in front of the Government.
6. 2. 2014 afp
Bosnia police use tear gas against protesting workers, 130 injured
More than 130 people, most of them policemen, were injured when police used tear gas and clashed with Bosnian demonstrators angry over the dire economic situation in a country where unemployment tops more than 44 percent, officials said.
„Thirty protestors and 104 policemen were admitted during the day at the emergency services“ in the northeastern town of Tuzla where the protests erupted Thursday, hospital spokesman Adis Nisic told AFP.
Most injuries were caused by „heavy objects“ or were „eye-iritation by tear gas,“ Nisic said.
Earlier reports said 32 people were hurt, including two policeman seriously injured during scuffles in Tuzla, once one of the main industrial hubs in the former Yugoslav republic.
Fresh clashes erupted later Thursday between several hundred protestors and the police, who sprayed each other with tear gas, Nisic said.
Police managed to disperse the crowd, but some protestors remained hiding in hallways and alleys in the centre of Tuzla, regional TV station RTVTK reported.
Thousands of demonstrators had gathered — more than 2,000 according to police, while local media said there were 7,000 — for a second day of protest against Bosnia’s economic woes.
Police used tear gas to disperse the crowds as demonstrators tried to break into regional government offices in Tuzla and threw stones.
„We have nothing to eat, and you?“ said one of the placards carried by protestors.
Tuzla police spokesman Izudin Saric told AFP that „26 policeman, two of them seriously, and six protestors were injured“.
Eight protestors were arrested, Saric said.
It followed protests on Wednesday, when 14 people, mostly policemen, were also injured in Tuzla, while 22 people were arrested.
Most were released Thursday, while three remained in custody.
Protesters accuse the authorities of fraudulently privatising a number of factories once owned by the state and demand payment of salary arrears, which they claim have been delayed for months.
Protests a ‚revolution‘
Workers were joined by unemployed and young people, many of whom said they had no future in Bosnia.
„I am 28 years old and I have been unemployed for more than 10 years. I cannot feed my children,“ one of the protestors said.
Sakib Kopic, one of the workers‘ representatives, said the protests were a „revolution, the answer of people“ to the authorities‘ failure to address the ongoing economic downfall.
„Protestors are not savages, there are many young people who have no hope of getting a job after graduating,“ Kopic said.
There were also protests on Thursday in the capital Sarajevo and several other towns in the Muslim-Croat federation, one of the two entities that make up post-war Bosnia.
Federation’s Prime Minister Nermin Niksic has called for an emergency session of his cabinet late Thursday to access the security situation in the towns hit by protests.
„More and more people live in misery and poverty, they are hungry,“ said analyst Vahid Sehic.
„People have lost hope and do not believe that the situation will improve, so their only tool is to protest,“ Sehic said.
In Sarajevo, about hundred people threw eggs and stones on government buildings, shouting „Thieves!“ and „Murderers!“ before anti-riot police moved to disperse them.
The unemployment rate in Bosnia, a Balkan country of 3.8 million people, is more than 44 percent.
Although official data show that 27.5 percent of its working population is unemployed, at least another 20 percent of people are estimated to be engaged in the so-called grey economy.
An average monthly salary in Bosnia is 420 euros ($570). One in five citizens lives under the poverty line, official data shows.Bosnia police use tear gas against protesting workers, 130 injured
Over 150 hurt as Bosnia protesters clash with police
Afp 7. 2.
More than 150 people were wounded in Bosnia on Friday when protestors stormed government buildings and clashed with riot police as anger over the dire state of the economy boiled over.
With unemployment at 44 percent and one in five people living below the poverty line, Bosnians have taken to the streets to protest the authorities‘ failure to address the economic situation.
As anger spiralled on Friday — the third day of the protests — demonstrators set fire to government buildings in the capital Sarajevo and Tuzla, the northeastern industrial hub where the unrest began.
Local media said police used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse protestors in Sarajevo, where demonstrators stormed two government buildings including a presidential office, setting them ablaze and smashing furniture.
At least 105 people were wounded in clashes between protestors and police, 78 of them police officers, Sarajevo head of emergency services Sena Softic Taljanovic told AFP by telephone.
Another 11 people were reported injured in Tuzla, where thousands of protestors cheered as young men wearing hoods stormed a government building, destroying furniture and throwing televisions out of the windows.
Some 3,000 people took to the streets in the central town of Zenica, once the seat of powerful mining industry, where state news agency Fena said more than 50 were wounded in clashes between protestors and police.
The demonstrations in more than 20 Bosnian towns were the biggest show of unrest to hit the Balkan country of 3.8 million people since the 1992-1995 war.
The protestors are demanding the resignation of local and regional officials who they blame for two decades of political stalemate that has left the economy in dire straits.
Zeljko Komsic, chairman of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, said he would call for an extraordinary session of the country’s leadership.
„We (politicians) are responsible for everything… Nothing good will come from anarchy,“ Komsic said on television.
‚People are hungry‘
Most protestors blamed politicians for the lack of economic growth in the country.
„People protest because they are hungry, because they don’t have jobs. We demand the government resign,“ Nihad Karac, a construction worker in his 40s, told AFP.
„I am employed, but my salary is 250 euros per month.“
Beset by endemic government corruption, Bosnia is among the poorest countries in Europe, with an average monthly salary of 420 euros ($570).
More than 44 percent of the working population is unemployed, according to the official Agency for Statistics, although the Central Bank puts the figure at 27.5 percent, with at least 20 percent of workers estimated to be engaged in the so-called grey economy.
Adding to Bosnia’s financial woes, the European Union said in December it would halve its financial aid over the nation’s lack of progress with reforms needed to join the bloc.
Bosnia hoped to join the EU and started high-level accession talks in mid-2012.
The protests started on Wednesday in Tuzla, once one of the main industrial hubs in the former Yugoslav republic.
They followed a call by workers who accused the authorities of fraudulently privatising a number of factories once owned by the state. They say salaries have been unpaid for months.
Sakib Kopic, one of the workers‘ representatives, said they were „the people’s answer“ to the government’s failure to address the ongoing economic decline.
More than 130 people were injured in clashes between police and protestors in the city on Thursday, and on Friday the city’s schools remained shut for fear of further violence.
„This is the shout of rage, hunger and hopelessness about the future that has accumulated for years since the conflict and is exploding right now,“ local newspaper Dnevni Avaz said in an editorial.
The violence also spread Friday to the southern town Mostar, where hundreds of protestors stormed a local administration building and smashed windows.
„More and more people are living in misery and poverty. They are hungry,“ said political analyst Vahid Sehic, chairman of the Forum of Citizens of Tuzla.
„People have lost hope and do not believe that the situation will improve, so their only tool is protest.“
8. 2. afp
Bosnia and Herzegovina could face a „tsunami“ of popular anger
Bosnia braced Saturday for fresh protests amid warnings the country could face a „tsunami“ of popular anger over its dire economy after days of riots left several hundred people injured.
The acrid smell of smoke hung over the capital Sarajevo where firemen spent the night dousing flames after protesters set fire to government buildings in scenes repeated in cities throughout the country.
The protests are the Balkan country’s worst unrest since the 1992-1995 war and reflect growing despair over the state of the economy in a nation where unemployment stands at 44 percent and where one in five lives below the poverty line.
Police have used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters, leaving around 300 people injured since the demonstrations erupted on Wednesday.
„This is a state of war,“ warned the front page of the Oslobodjenje daily.
Bosnia’s interior minister warned that government inaction could spark more popular anger, saying authorities had to launch an „anti-graft tsunami.“
„If this does not happen, we will have a ‚citizens‘ tsunami‘,“ Fahrudin Radoncic said in a TV interview late on Friday.
The protesters are demanding the resignation of local and regional officials, whom they blame for two decades of political stalemate that has left the economy in dire straits.
Several senior officials in regional administrations in the southern town of Tuzla and the central town of Zenica resigned late on Friday under the pressure, local media reported.
„This is so sad, to see the towns ablaze less than 20 years after living through another hell,“ Jasminka Fisic, an unemployed resident of Sarajevo told AFP, referring to the country’s bloody 1992-1995 inter-ethnic war that left 100,000 dead.
„People are entitled to act and say what they think, but not to demolish towns,“ she said.
– The anger of the hungry –
The protests first erupted in Tuzla, once the biggest industrial hub in Bosnia, where dozens of companies employing thousands of people were ruined after hasty privatisation.
Anger has also been fuelled by widespread corruption plaguing the country and the failure by politicians to overcome bickering and focus on the economy.
„Citizens‘ discontent is a consequence of misery and anger accumulated for twenty years,“ analyst Minel Abaz said.
„The anger of the hungry, the poor, the unemployed, the oppressed that has grown over two decades, exploded in the streets,“ said the editorial in the daily Dnevni Avaz.
Abaz said the painful post-war transition of Bosnia’s impoverished economy has only brought „wealth to the ruling elite.“
„Bosnian society is deeply divided… but the protests like this could be a good chance to overcome such inter-ethnic divisions,“ Abaz said.
Beset by endemic government corruption, Bosnia is among the poorest countries in Europe, with an average monthly salary of 420 euros ($570).
Adding to Bosnia’s financial woes, the European Union said in December it would halve its financial aid over the nation’s lack of progress with reforms needed to join the bloc.
Trailing behind their Balkan neighbours, Bosnia only started high-level accession talks with the EU in mid-2012.
But a complex institutional structure in the country established after the end of the war — dividing power between its three ethnic communities, Serbs, Croats and Muslims — has led to an almost permanent political stalemate because of inter-ethnic disputes.
The protests have so far engulfed towns in Bosnia’s Muslim-Croat Federation.
But small-level protests without incidents were also held on Friday in Banja Luka, the capital of the Bosnian Serb entity Republika Srpska.
afp, 9. 2.
Poverty, joblessness underpin Bosnia’s bloody riots
The failure of Bosnia’s political leaders to address grinding poverty and growing unemployment has prompted the first violent protests since the 1992-95 war, with dire warnings of worse to come.
Starting in the northeastern industrial hub of Tuzla last week, the protests spread across the country, turning into riots that left hundreds injured and government buildings in flames.
The international High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Valentin Inzko, even raised the prospect of sending in European Union soldiers if the unrest intensified.
„If the situation escalates, we will possibly have to think about EU troops. But not right now,“ he told the Austrian Kurier newspaper on Sunday.
With unemployment ranging from the central bank estimate of 27.5 percent to the statistical agency’s 44 percent, the Balkan country’s unemployment rate is easily among the highest in Europe.
Joblessness of more than 25 percent among Bosnia’s young adults is a „stunning and problematic“ figure, the World Bank’s director for southeastern Europe Ellen Goldstein said last month.
„High unemployment and low labour force participation continue to pose a threat and need to be addressed to ensure a peaceful and prosperous future for Bosnia,“ Goldstein told a World Bank conference.
One in five Bosnians live below the poverty line, and at least one in five workers are thought to be engaged in the so-called grey economy.
Although macroeconomic data showed the economy made a fragile recovery of 1.0 percent in 2013 after shrinking 0.5 percent in 2012, Bosnia’s 3.8 million people have felt scant improvement in their everyday lives.
„More and more people live in misery and poverty. They are hungry,“ said political analyst Vahid Sehic.
Bosnia’s citizens are among the poorest in Europe, with an average monthly salary of 420 euros ($570).
A shadow economy, endemic corruption and a complex post-war political structure that enables squabbling politicians to block reforms are seen as key impediments to improving the economy.
Moreover, hasty privatisations that enabled tycoons to shut down dozens of companies and make quick profits by selling their assets before declaring bankruptcy have left hundreds of people jobless and in despair.
Local media have widely reported that new owners often failed to comply with privatisation contracts and failed to pay workers for up to two years.
‚People are hungry‘
„People protest because they are hungry, because they don’t have jobs. We demand the government resign,“ said Nihad Karac, a construction worker in his 40s who was among the protesters in Tuzla.
Social scientist Miodrag Zivanovic said the public dissatisfaction is not surprising.
„These are protests of hungry people with years of accumulated anger against all the decision-makers who have brought us here,“ Zivanovic told the FENA news agency on Saturday.
Foreign investors are reluctant to come to Bosnia because of its poor infrastructure and cumbersome administrative procedures, as well as a complex political system that requires businesses to deal with authorities at three or four levels.
After the war, power was shared among Bosnia’s three ethnic communities — Serbs, Croats and Muslims — and persistent inter-ethnic disputes have undermined reform efforts.
Foreign investment in 2013 totalled just 252 million euros ($343 million), Central Bank governor Kemal Kozaric said.
Reforms unlikely
The IMF, which in September 2012 awarded Bosnia a two-year standby arrangement worth 384 million euros, approved its fifth instalment last week.
But it warned that despite progress „more remains to be done to improve the business environment and the functioning of the labour market“.
„In this regard, it will be particularly critical to put in place new labour market legislation that will contribute to a lasting reduction in unemployment.“
Economic analyst Svetlana Cenic said political consistency and discipline would be required to resolve the crisis.
But she warned against expecting significant reforms ahead of elections in October.
„The authorities will be occupied with electoral engineering and power-sharing issues and not with the economy,“ Cenic said in a recent interview.
Bosnia started accession talks with the European Union in 2012, trailing behind other Balkan countries.