NGOs Demand from Cantonal Government to Act Responsibly or Step Down

14 March 2008

A group of nongovernmental organizations from Bosnia and Herzegovina sent an open protest letter, addressed to the Government of Canton of Sarajevo, Cantonal Ministry of Interior, Mayor Semiha Borovac and the citizens of Sarajevo, protesting the decision of the authorities to suspend the services of the Public Transport Enterprise GRAS for several hours on Wednesday, March 12, during and after the football match played at the Grbavica Stadium, to avoid possible violent attacks of football hooligans on citizens and GRAS vehicles.

�At the same time, you denied the citizens of Sarajevo a fundamental property right to get the service they properly compensated GRAS for�, says the letter.

NGOs accuse that, instead of the hooligans, the authorities punished the citizens who were prevented from movin normally and that, instead of measures agains violence, including violence in public transportation vehicles that has resulted in demands for acountability and responsibility of competent authorities, the Govenrment decided to eliminate the public transportation from that equation.

�Instead of declaring policies of zero tolerance for football hooligan and any other violence in the city, you actively prevent the citizens from normal daily routines and business, thus capitulating to thugs, admitting that it is they who rule the city�, says the letter to municipal and cantonal authorities.

The NGOs wander if the next step would be removal from the streets of all means of transportation that are potential targets for theft and vandalism, the citizens that are potential victims of robbers and young women that are potential victims of sexual offenders.

Finally, the signatories of the protest letter demand from the Government to step down, for its solutions for the problems faced by Sarajevo can\'t bring anything good to the citizens.

The full text of the protest letter, in BHS, is attached to the article.