Violence at the Protests Condemned

14 February 2008

Protests against the deteriorating security and street crime situation in Sarajevo that started last Saturday, and directly provoked by the brutal murder of 17-year old Denis Mrnjavac, continued yesterday, in front of the Government of the Canton of Sarajevo, with demands for Mayor Semiha Borovac and Cantonal Prime Minister Semir Silajdjic to resign from their positions.

Foto: FENA

Although initiated by an informal civic group, the protests were soon joined by a number of NGOS, which appeared as co-organizers. The people started to gather well ahead of schedule, and at one moment, there were more than 3,000 people gathered, mostly youth.

After initial calls for resignations, soon protesters started throwing rotten eggs, stones, bottles and torches at the building. After it started, the stoning never stopped, causing serious damage on the building.

The police intervened and dissipated the protesters. There were no clashes with the protesters and only one person was arrested, with several minors called to the Centar Police Dept. The arrested was released from custody after several hours.

Today there were a number of reactions to the violent turn of the protests organized by Grozd NGO and i Dosta Movement.

The Local Democracy Foundation expressed its strong disagreement with the manner of organization and the turn of events, especially knowing that the protest was organized against violence and delinquency. They emphasize that the Foundation has warned about the problem of violence, as accepted model of behavour, for quite tome time and that the prevention requires multidisciplinary approach.

The Dosta! Movement, one of the organizers of the protests, also condemned the violence, expressing their disappointment with the fact that the accumulated discontent of the citizens with the current situation resulted in a violent outbreak. Members of the movement did make all efforts to calm down the situation and break up the protests once the violence started, but to no avail.

Many other organizations and instutions, as well as political parties from all layers of political spectrum, joined in the condemnations.

The Sarajevo Canton Assembly adopted, in an urgent session that reviewed the security situation in the Canton, the Draft Action Plan for implementation of the Strategy for prevention of Youth Delinquency in BIH. The Assembly press office noted that the Strategy will be submitted to the Assembly for debate and adoption in 45 days at the latest.

For more detailed reporting on yesterday�s protests, visit web-portal www.sarajevo-x.ba.