Bosnian police and several hundred unpaid workers have clashed in the northern city of Tuzla when the protesters tried storming a local government building.
Several thousand people, mainly unemployed workers and retirees, marched to the government building of Tuzla Canton, demanding better treatment.
The protest turned violent when some protesters began to smash cars on the street, and police intervened, police said. Meanwhile, protesters accused police of overreaction.
Six protesters and 12 police were injured, mostly with minor injuries, local newspapers reported. Other reports said at least 17 police officers were injured, two of them seriously.
A total of 11 cars were damaged, local media reported, adding that 27 protesters were detained. Most of the protesters are former workers from local companies which went bankrupt.
The demonstrators wanted to confront local officials in Tuzla whom they blame for allowing the city’s major state-owned companies to go bankrupt between 2000 and 2008 after being privatised.
Hospital official Adis Nisic told reporters most of the injuries from the clashes on 5 February were from being hit by stones.
The four former state-owned companies, which included furniture and washing powder factories, employed most of the population in Bosnia’s number three city.
They were sold to private owners and the contracts obliged them to invest in and make them profitable. But the owners sold the assets, stopped paying workers and filed for bankruptcy.
“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.”
At 27.5%, Bosnia’s unemployment rate is the highest in the Balkans.