Bosnia: violent protests ‘worst unrest’ since war

 

08/02 15:13

Government buildings have been set on fire and hundreds of people injured in the worst civil unrest in Bosnia-Hercegovina since the end of the war in the early nineties.
There have been three days of protests against high unemployment, corruption and botched privatisation which has driven many into poverty while producing a few wealthy tycoons.
The protests began in Tuzla, in what was once the industrial heart of northern Bosnia, when police clashed with unpaid workers of four former state-owned companies.
The new owners were supposed to have invested and made the companies profitable but instead sold the assets, stopped paying workers and filed for bankruptcy. Demonstrations spread to towns across Bosnia-Hercegovina in support of the Tuzla workers and in anger at the government for failing to tackle the more than 40 percent unemployment.