Zagreb, March 1 (IANS/AKI) Croatian anti-government protesters continued to demonstrate Tuesday in the capital Zagreb and other cities, with demonstrators calling for an end to corruption and demanding government resignations and early elections.
The protests were organised through the popular social networking site Facebook and were a mix of social grievances and war veterans’ displeasure over Zagreb’s cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Hundreds of demonstrators marched to the apartment of Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor Monday night, shouting ‘Down with the government’, and ‘Kosor go’. The protesters were cordoned off by police.
Thousands of demonstrators clashed with police in front of government headquarters Saturday in Zagreb, protesting against economic hardships and corruption. Sixty five people were detained and 50 injured, including 30 policemen.
Croatia expects to become a member of the European Union next year, but Brussels insists it prosecute more vigorously people suspected of having committed crimes in the 1991-95 war of secession from the former Yugoslavia.
The country is grappling with rampant corruption, growing social differences, an army of close to 400,000 unemployed and over $40 billion in foreign debt.
One of the protest leaders, Ivan Pernar, 26, said Saturday arrests were made because the authorities viewed the protesters as ‘enemies of their fascist regime’.
‘You (the government) must go, because you have betrayed everything that could have been betrayed,’ Pernar said. ‘You have deceived everyone, you have turned people into beggars and slaves of foreign banks,’ he added.
The ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) has accused the opposition, led by Social Democratic Party, of fomenting the unrest.
New protests are scheduled for Wednesday.
–IANS/AKI
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