Sarajevo: Students protest demanding accountability for devastating October 2024 floods

(Patria) - A one-hour peaceful protest, organized by an informal group of students "Hoće l' ta promjena - HTP" (Will there be that change - WtC), will be held today on the plateau in front of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (PSBiH) building in Sarajevo, starting at 12:00 PM.

The organizers state that the reason and motive for today's protest is the situation in which the residents of Jablanica, Fojnica, and Konjic have been placed, "and the least we can do is stand with our fellow citizens and direct demands to all responsible parties".

While inviting citizens to respond to the protest, the informal group of students clarifies that they believe only the state is the proper address to turn to, and that lower levels of government - entities, cantons, and municipalities - are not adequate for the place where they seek justice.

They emphasize that the state should stand behind each of us, regardless of where we live. They remind that in October last year, 29 citizens, including two unborn babies, lost their lives in the floods that hit the surroundings of Jablanica, Konjic, and Fojnica.

"They were not killed by rain, nor by rocks, but by the negligence of competent authorities, services, and institutions, which did not act preventively and responsibly towards the lives of all of us, our homes, and nature.

The loss of life is the most severe, and a large number of families have lost everything - their homes. A full four months have passed, and still, no one has been held accountable for the deaths of 29 citizens.

Worse still, no investigation has even been initiated; only pre-investigative actions are being conducted, which have no legal deadline.

We also recall that 10 years ago, in 2014, 21 people lost their lives in the floods at that time. No one was ever held accountable.

No one was held accountable for the existence of an illegal quarry that killed 19 people in Donja Jablanica. No one was held accountable for the absence of a forestry law in HNK and FBiH.

This system is systematically killing us, from Jablanica, Konjic, Fojnica, across the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina. And then they wonder why young people are leaving," stated the informal group of students.

They then presented eight demands to the authorities in BiH:

1. To urgently initiate investigations and urgently file indictments against responsible persons;

2. To urgently inform the public about all actions taken by competent services, bodies, and institutions regarding the deaths of 29 of our fellow citizens;

3. To criminally sanction all responsible parties for the operation of the illegal quarry that caused the deaths of 19 people in Donja Jablanica;

4. To criminally sanction responsible parties within competent bodies, services, and institutions who failed to act preventively and prevent the deaths of 29 people in the October 2024 floods;

5. To review all quarries and other ecologically dangerous projects that pose a future threat to people's lives throughout BiH;

6. To harmonize all spatial plans with the landslide map and the map of torrential rivers throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, so that Jablanica, Konjic, and Fojnica do not happen again;

7. To publicly disclose all data on collected aid and the expenditure of all funds from both the FBiH budget and donations received for all flooded areas from October 2024;

8. To publicly announce the plans and dynamics for the reconstruction of the flooded areas.