Hundreds of war veterans gathered on Thursday morning in front of Bosnia's Federation (FBiH) entity Parliament in Sarajevo, demanding the payment of veteran allowance. The Parliament's lower house is set to discuss a bill on the rights of war veterans in its session on Thursday morning.
Police forces have sealed off the area around the parliament building in Sarajevo city centre on Thursday, before protesters headed towards the building from a nearby gathering place. Local police also secured the parliament building itself, to prevent any possibility of the veterans forcefully entering into the building.
In addition, a major thoroughfare was briefly gridlocked as the line of protesters approaching the building on foot.
So far, no incidents have been reported.
Thursday’s march is the continuation of earlier protests which started last year. They were were suspended during the October election campaigning, only to resume on the day when the first regular session of the House of Representatives was set to take place.
Veterans who fought in the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-95 Bosnian war demand that the government publishes a single registry of war veterans, cuts financing of veteran associations, and secure funding the veterans’ allowance payments.
“We ask that all three demands are solved in the session today, and we know that Representatives could solve this in five minutes,” Drago Grbavac, a veteran, said on Thursday.
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