(Reuters) - Twenty-two people, including 17 police officers, were injured and 24 arrested when protesters in the northern Bosnian town of Tuzla clashed with police on Wednesday over the closure of local factories and firms.
The incident pointed to deepening social unease over the state of the Bosnian economy and the political inertia in the country almost two decades since the end of its 1992-95 war.
Years of ethnic politicking between former warring sides - Serbs, Croats and Muslim Bosniaks - has stifled economic development and progress towards integration with the European Union.
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"This is the start of the Bosnian spring," protester Sakib Kopic told Bosnian state radio, alluding to the wave of popular protests that shook the Arab world from 2011. "No political party is behind this protest, just the people."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/05/us-bosnia-protest-idUSBREA141L520140205
FRI 7th - Sarajevo police use stun grenades, rubber bullets as countrywide riots paralyze Bosnia.
Special forces soldiers have used a water cannon to drive off protesters trying to storm the presidential residency in Bosnian capital Sarajevo, Reuters reports. Demonstrators had set fire to the building and torched police cars stationed around it.
Several cities in the Balkan state are gripped by dissent after a local unemployment rally grew into a nationwide protest - the worst outburst of violence since the regional war ended in 1995.
http://rt.com/news/bosnia-protest-grenades-torch-053/
FRI 7th - Violent anti-govt protests spread across Bosnia.
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- Anti-government protesters stormed into the Bosnian presidency and another government building in Sarajevo and set them ablaze Friday as riot police fired tear gas in a desperate attempt to stop them.
Smoke was rising from several Bosnian cities as thousands vented their fury over the Balkan nation's almost 40 percent unemployment and its rampant corruption. It was the worst social unrest the country has seen since the 1992-95 war that killed over 100,000 people following Yugoslavia's dissolution.
As night was falling Friday, downtown Sarajevo was in chaos, with buildings and cars burning and riot police in full gear chasing protesters and pounding batons against their shields to get the crowd to disperse.
Nearly 200 people were injured throughout the country in clashes with police, medical workers reported.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_BOSNIA_ANTI_GOVERNMENT_PROTESTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-02-07-17-21-22
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