Eurasia Press & News
The ‘plenum of all plenums’, meeting in Sarajevo, demanded the resignation of the Federation entity government as well as a review of all privatization agreements.
Participants from plenums from dozens of towns from the Federation, one of two entities in Bosnia, gathered on April 9 in front of the entity government building in Sarajevo and read out their demands, starting with the resignation of the Federation government.
The government was meanwhile holding a session in Mostar in the southwest, while the building in Sarajevo was surrounded by a fence and dozens of policemen.
The plenum also demanded that all current privatization processes be stopped and that all privatizations conducted so far be reviewed.
‘We have gathered here to peacefully express our protest,’ said one protester using a megaphone. ‘These demands are… priority questions, which concern the basic needs of us all.’
She added that the demand for the Federation entity government to go was previously adopted by all the other plenums working in several towns in the entity.
Other demands were that all charges made against participants in street protests should be dropped and that the officials be stripped of various perks, including receiving a salary for a year after their term in office ends.
The authorities were also told to change the law on taxes, so that citizens pay taxes in accordance with their wealth, and that taxes on basic groceries be abolished.
The participants came to Sarajevo from Zenica, Mostar, Konjic, Maglaj, Srebrenik, Zavidovici, Fojnica and other towns.
The protests in Bosnia started in the northern town of Tuzla on February 5, when several hundred redundant workers from several large companies from the region, which had been privatized and shut down, took to the streets.
Protests then spread and turned violent, resulting in buildings being burned in Tuzla, Zenica, Mostar and Sarajevo, including the Bosnian Presidency building, where the state archives are stored. Four prime ministers of cantons in Bosnia’s Federation entity subsequently resigned.
