A large number of citizens gathered in Bosnia’s capital for a protest demanding a "normal, functional state."

The gathering under the name ‘Probudi se Bosno!’ (Wake Up, Bosnia!) took place in downtown Sarajevo.

“After 30 years, we must resolutely say no to a political system that generates discrimination, corruption and injustice. We demand the same rights for every human being and the prevention of artificial crises,” one of the protesters said.

The citizens stressed that “the future that the citizens want is not a tribal cohabitation of the so-called constituent peoples, but within BiH on civic principles in which equality, justice, freedom and solidarity will prevail.”

“Only in such an element is economic and social progress possible,” they said.

One of the organisers of the protest, Suad Djozic, said that the idea of a Bosnia and Herzegovina organised based on a civic concept is finally being discussed on the international scene.

He said that “it all began” when citizens organised a protest in front of the office of Bosnia’s international administrator, the High Representative, on October 25 last year.

“And now there is talk of this in Brussels, Stockholm, Toronto, London and other world cities,” he said, referring to the many protests over the situation in BiH that took place across the world since then.

“We are currently working on uniting everyone into a single resistance front, which will no longer make agreements with the regime of constituent peoples,” he said, referring to the constitutional setup of the country based on the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement.