Mass protests in Sarajevo: United Citizens of BIH fight for basic human rights

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By Nevena Šarenac

Thousands of united citizens of BiH are fighting today in Sarajevo for basic human rights, for rights of children, for future generations and for better and brighter future of all citizens of BiH, regardless of their nationality and religion.

The mass protest of citizens from the entire BiH is currently being held in front of the building of BiH Institutions and protesters ask for the adoption of the ID Number Law at the level of BiH. Protesters are coming from different countries each minute, and they are all unanimous – we are staying here until the law is adopted!

Apart from that, protesters ask the formation of the state fund of solidarity which would finance the medical treatment outside BIH for severely ill, and also that BIH parliamentarians and ministers give up 30% of their pay checks which would then go the fund.

Numerous parents with their children, students, unemployed, pensioners, farmers, scholars, taxi drivers and representatives of numerous associations have joined the protests. The traffic around the building of BiH Institutions is very heavy and the participants of the protests are showing their dissatisfaction with clever banners, car horns.

The heavy police presence secures the protests, which are without incidents.

Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council had a special session this morning where they concluded that BiH government must urgently solve the issue of ID Number at the state level.

Famous BiH actor Feđa Štukan has been supporting his citizens for days in their fight for human rights. He said that they’ll stay in front of the building until the things improve and they will not back down.

Commenting the conclusion of PIC, Štukan said that it was expected.

‘We are very much aware, so is PIC and the entire world that our politicians have no capacity or will to solve the issue which will benefit the people.  Regardless the fact that they do not want to help this people, there are citizens here who want the situation to improve’, added Štukan.

This morning’s conclusion of the PIC commented one of the protesters  Nihad Aličković, who said: ‘if those people want to work in this country, let them work for this country, otherwise they should go home!’

Support to Sarajevo protests came from Mostar, Banja Luka, Goražde, Bihać, Tuzla, Zenica, etc.

Around 30 citizens of Mostar came to Sarajevo with the message that Mostar is united in the struggle for the rights of newborns, because the issue of ID number concerns all citizens of BiH.

Citizens of Goražde also came to Sarajevo and noted that they’ve organised protests in Goražde as well.

Citizens of Banja Luka gave their support to country  without discrimination, and a group of citizens from Banja Luka came to protests with slogans written in Cyrillic which received a huge applaud from the crowd.

‘We are coming from Banja Luka to give support to Sarajevo and to everyone in BiH. It is not just the support for the children without ID Numbers and their parents, we also want to express our unhappiness with discrimination, divisions and everything bad that those who fled this building taking their pay checks with them, have imposed on us’, said Milenko Kindl.

The academic community of BiH has also given its support to protesters and they said that they’ll support every civic initiative.

‘We are very politically motivated, because we want better political community. We cannot be more politically motivated’ said ironically professor of the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo Asim Mujkić.

Today’s protests are continuation of the protest that started on 5 June when a group of citizens, revolted by the fact that the life of three month old baby Belmina Ibrišević from Gračanica was endangered because   the law on ID number was not adopted, blockaded the exit from the garage of the building of BiH Parliamentary Assembly and BiH Council of Ministers.

Soon, a great number of citizens joined the blockade, and very quickly all exits were blockaded. BiH parliamentarians, staff and guests of the Parliament spent 15 hours in buildings, only to leave the building at 4 a.m. the next day with the assistance of police.