The protests of the citizens, as they announced, follow the sequence of negotiations from Neum, as a sign of opposition to the engagement in connection with the changes to the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
”Negotiations are taking place at a time when all forces should be focused on stopping the blow to the constitutional and legal order of BiH coming from the Republika Srpska (RS) entity. It is also controversial that, without involving all political factors and the civil sector, the wishes of only one political option are being met (other proposals are not being considered) with the intention of amending the Constitution of BiH.
Namely, the focus of the negotiations is on deepening and cementing further ethnic divisions (which have so far evicted half of the country’s population), even though the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights are going in the opposite direction. According to these verdicts, the civic model of organizing BiH has no alternative, so if one wants to changesomething in the Constitution, then it can only go in that direction, ” they stressed from ReSTART.
So far, they have organized a large number of protests in front of the Office of the High Representative (OHR), the United States (U.S.) Embassy, the European Union (EU) Delegation, the BiH Presidency, the Court and Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, the BiH Parliament, the Embassies of Serbia and Croatia in Sarajevo, as well as a press conference in Neum where Bosniak and Croat parties, with the mediation of U.S. and EU envoys, conducted negotiations on changes to the Election Law (only) for the territory of the Federation of BiH (FBiH).
“We’ve been oppressed for thirty years, making apartheids in schools. We have selectors and porters according to the national key. We need to turn to the civic principle, as everywhere in the normal world. Civic parties are anemic, they should take the initiative,” explained Suad Djozic, one of the organizers of the gathering.
Among those gathered is Sanjin Sinanovic, who said that a civicstate has no alternative.
”We are here to express our dissatisfaction with the fact that Bosnia is a state of three peoples, but instead, it should be a state of citizens. The civic state has no alternative, ” Sinanovic told in front of an informal group of citizens.
”Dissatisfied citizens mentioned that politicians had betrayed the state, that they would remember the agreements in the taverns. We do not want new conflicts, we want equal rights regardless of the name because we did not choose names. Thirty years of this was enough. If someone needs to suffer, let the father suffer, and this father is brave enough to suffer,” he added.
Izet Kunic, one of the protesters, pointed out the high costs of Denis Zvizdic and Bakir Izetbegovic.
Denis Zvizdic and Bakir Izetbegovic spend 5.000 euros in a hair salon on civilian money. We invite pensioners to come out and say what is bothering us, don’t be afraid. The president of the pensioners must not come here, because he works for the government.