European Spring Hits Balkans

[waltky]

Mebbe we oughta send Slick Willie over there to straighten things out...

Bosnia rocked by spreading anti-government unrest
Fri Feb 7, 2014 - Protesters across Bosnia set fire to government buildings and fought with riot police on Friday as long-simmering anger over lack of jobs and political inertia fuelled a third day of the worst civil unrest in Bosnia since a 1992-95 war.

Protests remained largely contained to the Croat-Muslim Bosniak half of Bosnia but were gaining in intensity. By 7 p.m. (1800 GMT), protesters had dispersed in three flashpoint towns, including the capital Sarajevo, but police remained out in force. All shops were closed and streets were littered with glass and debris. Hours earlier, police in Sarajevo fired rubber bullets at several thousand protesters who set fire to the headquarters of the cantonal government and to a section of the country's presidency building. The cantonal building was still smoldering in the evening. "This is so sad," said a woman, who would give only her first name, Vildana, watching the government building still in flames. "It took four years of war to destroy it and vandals now burned it in one day. This is just as in 1992."

The protesters also tried to force their way into the presidency, but were repelled by special police firing water cannon. Around 145 people were injured in Sarajevo, including 93 policemen. Several thousand protesters in the southern town of Mostar stormed two local government buildings and also set fire to the local city hall. Police did not intervene. In the town of Tuzla, once the industrial heart of northern Bosnia, protests over factory closures again turned violent.

Anti-government protesters clash with police in Sarajevo

Demonstrators stoned and torched two buildings of the local authority and clashed with police. Trapped by the flames, some leapt from windows, a Reuters photographer said. "I think this is a genuine Bosnian spring. We have nothing to lose. There will be more and more of us in the streets, there are around 550,000 unemployed people in Bosnia," said Almir Arnaut, an unemployed economist and activist from Tuzla.

Some protesters took computers from the Tuzla municipal building and looted a local supermarket inside the building. In Sarajevo, two cars and a police guard's cabin were set on fire in front of the presidency building and black smoke was still seen hours later. A government building in the central town of Zenica was also set alight and around 55 people were injured, including 23 police officers. Protesters, many of whom heeded calls on Facebook to take to the streets, chanted "Thieves!" and "Revolution!" The Zenica and Tuzla cantonal governments, in charge of local issues such as privatizations, said on Friday that their chiefs had resigned in the face of the protests.

SPREADING PROTESTS

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More than 130 hurt in Bosnia rally
Sat, Feb 08, 2014 - UNREST: Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters in Tuzla, a former industrial base in the north that has been hit hard by factory closures in recent years

More than 130 people, including 104 police officers, were injured on Thursday in a second day of anti-government demonstrations in the Bosnian town of Tuzla, as protests over unemployment and political inertia spread across the country. The protests highlight public resentment over the political bickering that has stifled governance and economic development since the 1992-to-1995 war in the Balkan country. Police fired tear gas to drive back several thousand people throwing stones, eggs and flares at a local government building in Tuzla, once the industrial heart of Bosnia’s north which has been hit hard by factory closures in recent years.

A strong police contingent dispersed the crowd in the evening after protesters started rioting, smashing shop windows and setting garbage bins on fire, a Tuzla police spokesman said. The town’s emergency service said it admitted 104 police officers who were seriously hurt and 30 civilians with lighter injuries. Hundreds of people turned out in solidarity protests in the capital, Sarajevo, and the towns of Zenica, Bihac and Mostar. In Sarajevo, protesters clashed with police who had blocked traffic in the city center. Four officers were taken to the hospital, officials said.

Protesters throw stones at police in front of a local government building in the northern Bosnian town of Tuzla

The prime minister of Bosnia’s autonomous Bosniak-Croat federation, where the protests took place, held an emergency meeting with regional security ministers and prosecutors. “We put on one side the workers who were left without basic rights, such as pensions and health benefits... and on the other side, all hooligans who used this situation to create chaos,” Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Prime Minister Nermin Niksic said after the meeting. “We will not come to the solution by destroying property, damaging vehicles and windows and fighting the police,” Niksic said, adding that police and prosecutors should take steps against those whom he called the hooligans.

The protesters were initially made up mainly of workers laid off when state-owned companies that were sold off collapsed under private ownership. They have been joined by thousands of jobless people and youths.
At 27.5 percent, Bosnia’s unemployment rate is the highest in the Balkans.
“It was our government that sold state assets for peanuts and left the people without pensions, jobs or health insurance,” said 24-year-old Hana Obradovic, an unemployed graduate from Sarajevo.

The Tuzla authorities ordered schools to cancel classes yesterday, when protests were expected to continue. Demonstrations are also to be held in Sarajevo and other cities. The authorities released 27 people who had been arrested on Wednesday. Many people said feuding political leaders, brought to power by a power-sharing system created under Bosnia’s 1995 peace deal, offer few solutions for its problems.

More than 130 hurt in Bosnia rally - Taipei Times

 

[bianco]

Mebbe we oughta send Slick Willie over there to straighten things out...

More than 130 hurt in Bosnia rally
Sat, Feb 08, 2014 - UNREST: Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters in Tuzla, a former industrial base in the north that has been hit hard by factory closures in recent years

More than 130 people, including 104 police officers, were injured on Thursday in a second day of anti-government demonstrations in the Bosnian town of Tuzla, as protests over unemployment and political inertia spread across the country. The protests highlight public resentment over the political bickering that has stifled governance and economic development since the 1992-to-1995 war in the Balkan country. Police fired tear gas to drive back several thousand people throwing stones, eggs and flares at a local government building in Tuzla, once the industrial heart of Bosnia’s north which has been hit hard by factory closures in recent years.

A strong police contingent dispersed the crowd in the evening after protesters started rioting, smashing shop windows and setting garbage bins on fire, a Tuzla police spokesman said. The town’s emergency service said it admitted 104 police officers who were seriously hurt and 30 civilians with lighter injuries. Hundreds of people turned out in solidarity protests in the capital, Sarajevo, and the towns of Zenica, Bihac and Mostar. In Sarajevo, protesters clashed with police who had blocked traffic in the city center. Four officers were taken to the hospital, officials said.

Protesters throw stones at police in front of a local government building in the northern Bosnian town of Tuzla

The prime minister of Bosnia’s autonomous Bosniak-Croat federation, where the protests took place, held an emergency meeting with regional security ministers and prosecutors. “We put on one side the workers who were left without basic rights, such as pensions and health benefits... and on the other side, all hooligans who used this situation to create chaos,” Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Prime Minister Nermin Niksic said after the meeting. “We will not come to the solution by destroying property, damaging vehicles and windows and fighting the police,” Niksic said, adding that police and prosecutors should take steps against those whom he called the hooligans.

The protesters were initially made up mainly of workers laid off when state-owned companies that were sold off collapsed under private ownership. They have been joined by thousands of jobless people and youths.
At 27.5 percent, Bosnia’s unemployment rate is the highest in the Balkans.
“It was our government that sold state assets for peanuts and left the people without pensions, jobs or health insurance,” said 24-year-old Hana Obradovic, an unemployed graduate from Sarajevo.

The Tuzla authorities ordered schools to cancel classes yesterday, when protests were expected to continue. Demonstrations are also to be held in Sarajevo and other cities. The authorities released 27 people who had been arrested on Wednesday. Many people said feuding political leaders, brought to power by a power-sharing system created under Bosnia’s 1995 peace deal, offer few solutions for its problems.

More than 130 hurt in Bosnia rally - Taipei Times

Their jobs have likely been sent offshore to India, China etc too.
These riots could well be starting in America and the rest of the West before long.

 

[waltky]

Bosnians protest unemployment, poverty in uprising...

Poverty, joblessness underpin Bosnia’s bloody riots
Mon, Feb 10, 2014 - ‘STUNNING AND PROBLEMATIC’: Unemployment and poverty are among the highest in Europe, with up to 44% jobless and one in five living below the poverty line

The failure of Bosnian political leaders to address grinding poverty and growing unemployment has prompted the first violent protests since the 1992 to 1995 war, with dire warnings of worse to come. Starting in the industrial hub of Tuzla in the northeast, the protests spread this week across the country, turning into riots that left hundreds injured and Bosnian government buildings in flames. While unemployment figures range from the Bosnian Central Bank’s 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, World Bank country director for the Western Balkans Ellen Goldstein said last month. “High unemployment and low labor 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 gray economy. Although macroeconomic data showed the Bosnian economy made a fragile recovery of 1 percent last year 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,” political analyst Vahid Sehic said. Bosnia’s citizens are among the poorest in Europe, with an average monthly salary of 420 euros (US$570). A shadow economy, endemic corruption and a complex postwar political structure that enables squabbling politicians to block reforms are seen as key impediments to improving the economy.

A picture released on Saturday shows a local government building in the southern Bosnian town of Mostar after being stormed and set on fire by hundreds of protesters

Moreover, hasty privatizations 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 privatization contracts and failed to pay workers for up to two years. The employers reportedly had the silent approval of Bosnian authorities eager to help them to avoid bankruptcy and keep unemployment figures down. “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 decisionmakers 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, not to mention 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 political and economic reform efforts. Foreign investment last year totaled just 252 million euros (US$343 million), Central Bank Governor Kemal Kozaric said. However, Bosnian Prime Minister Vjekoslav Bevanda said at a recent economic summit in Istanbul that investors could be attracted to a major infrastructure project linking Hungary to the Croatian port of Ploce via Bosnia.

More Poverty, joblessness underpin Bosnia?s bloody riots - Taipei Times