Bosnia protests: 150 injured as demonstrators set fire to presidential palace

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: Daily Telegraph

More than 150 people were wounded in Bosnia on Friday in the worst civil unrest in the country since the 1992-95 war as anger over the dire state of the economy and political inertia boiled over.

Angry protesters set fire to part of the presidential palace in Sarajevo in protests over unemployment and corruption, as well as government buildings in the capital Sarajevo, Tuzla and Zenica.

Demonstrators also clashed with riot police for a third consecutive day in the protests, which have remained largely contained to the Croat-Muslim Bosniak half of Bosnia but which are gaining in intensity.

Anti-government protests began on Wednesday in the northern city of Tuzla, before spreading as thousands took to the streets of a dozen cities to express their discontent over the almost 40 per cent unemployment rate.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/bosnia/10625810/Bosnia-protests-150-injured-as-demonstrators-set-fire-to-presidential-palace.html

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Analysis:

Bosnian protests: A Balkan Spring?

The trouble began in the northern town of Tuzla on Wednesday. Workers from several factories which were privatised and which have now gone bankrupt united to demand action over jobs, unpaid salaries and pensions.

The workers were joined by students and political activists. After they began stoning the local court, violence broke out.
...
The country is divided into two main parts. Half the country is the Serbian-dominated Republika Srpska, whose leader Milorad Dodik wants it to become an independent state.

The other half is called the Federation and is comprised of ten cantons, which are either dominated by Bosniaks (who used to be called Bosnian Muslims) or Bosnian Croats. Each canton has its own government, which is then superimposed over local, city and town councils.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26093160

[Laelth]

1. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[dipsydoodle]

2. Kosovo too

Police in the Kosovan capital Pristina have used tear gas to disperse hundreds of mostly student protesters at the country's main public university.

The demonstrators were calling for the head of the university and some of his staff to resign following allegations that they falsified research in order to get academic credentials.

Dozens of policemen and protesters are reported to have been injured.

Correspondents say the backdrop to the protests is widespread unemployment.

Between 35 to 45% of the workforce is estimated to be unemployed with only a tiny proportion of the 30,000 people who enter the job market every year able to find work.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26094032

[pampango]

3. "The prime minister said the unrest was caused by "hooligans"'.

The protests first erupted in Tuzla before spreading to other towns. The prime minister of the autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation said the unrest was caused by "hooligans".

That seems to be the explanation that prime ministers, presidents and dictators always use when protests break out about their policies. The protesters are always "hooligans", "criminals", "terrorists" or some equally unsavory characters. Better to focus attention on "bad" protesters than on the "bad" policies that have made people so mad.

[another_liberal]

6. Don't you just love austerity!

Why think, if we just continue to cut corners on things like food stamps, veterans' benefits and unemployment compensation, we too can probably have our government buildings vandalized someday.

[pampango]

8. Always easier for the government to blame 'hooligans' than its own austerity or repression. n/t

[BelgianMadCow]

10. Bosnia: rioting! Ukraine: freedom-loving freedomfighters fighting for freedom

in EU hands!

[pampango]

11. No. I think the governments in both countries call them "hooligans" or worse.

The message from all governments - government policies - good. Protesters - bad.

[mylye2222]

4. Anyway, in those contries, every person who contests any policy

is a "terroriste" . And this king of tratments of protesters is raising in Spain too.

[JDPriestly]

5. And a century ago in Sarajevo, WWI began.

100 years later, trouble in Sarajevo. The problems are very different, of course, but still it seems like an echo.

On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead in Sarajevo, by Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six assassins (five Serbs and one Bosnian Muslim), coordinated by Danilo Ilić. The political objective of the assassination was to break off Austria-Hungary's south-Slav provinces so they could be combined into a Greater Serbia or a Yugoslavia. The assassins' motives were consistent with the movement that later became known as Young Bosnia. Serbian military officers stood behind the attack. The assassination led directly to the First World War when Austria-Hungary subsequently issued an ultimatum against Serbia, which was partially rejected. Austria-Hungary then declared war, marking the outbreak of the war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria

[jsr]

7. The pot is boiling over

[imthevicar]

9. And The Frog Is Pissed!

[pampango]

12. "Anger in Bosnia, but this time the people can read their leaders' ethnic lies"

Protesters were carrying three flags side by side – Bosnian, Serb and Croat, brought together by a radical demand for justice

Last week, cities were burning in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It all began in Tuzla, a city with a Muslim majority. The protests then spread to the capital, Sarajevo, and Zenica, but also Mostar, home to a large segment of the Croat population, and Banja Luka, capital of the Serb part of Bosnia. Thousands of enraged protesters occupied and set fire to government buildings. Although the situation then calmed down, an atmosphere of high tension still hangs in the air.

The events gave rise to conspiracy theories (for example, that the Serb government had organised the protests to topple the Bosnian leadership), but one should safely ignore them since it is clear that, whatever lurks behind, the protesters' despair is authentic.

In one of the photos from the protests, we see the demonstrators waving three flags side by side: Bosnian, Serb, Croat, expressing the will to ignore ethnic differences. In short, we are dealing with a rebellion against nationalist elites: the people of Bosnia have finally understood who their true enemy is: not other ethnic groups, but their own leaders who pretend to protect them from others. It is as if the old and much-abused Titoist motto of the "brotherhood and unity" of Yugoslav nations acquired new actuality.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/10/anger-bosnia-ethnic-lies-protesters-bosnian-serb-croat