SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Bos- nians swept up the rubble Saturday after protesters set fire to the presidency and other government buildings in the country’s worst social unrest since its devastating war.
The next steps in attempts to clean up are far from clear.
A few hundred people protested peacefully in the capital, Sarajevo, and other cities, angry about the nation’s almost 40 percent unemployment rate and rampant corruption.
Local governments in four cities, including Sarajevo, resigned amid the unrest. One mayor fled the country, and politicians appeared on TV acknowledging mistakes and promising to change before general elections in October.
Bosnians have many reasons to be skeptical.
The privatization after the 1992-95 war decimated the middle class and sent the working class into poverty. Corruption is widespread, and high taxes for the bloated public sector eat away at residents’ paychecks. Bickering among politicians along ethnic lines means very little functions smoothly and has hampered the country’s ambitions of joining the European Union.
“This was a long accumulated dissatisfaction,” said Bosnian Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija.
The violence started early last week in the northern city of Tuzla, a former industrial center, where factory workers vented their fury over the dubious privatization that left them without jobs and earned salaries.
About 200 police officers and 100 protesters were injured Friday as protesters smashed government buildings, cars and streetlights.
