SARAJEVO – Protesters rallied in Sarajevo for a sixth consecutive day on Wednesday over a tram accident in which a university student Erdoan Morankić lost his life, and several other individuals were injured, including a high school pupil, Ela Jovanović, whose leg was amputated.
The accident occurred on 12 February, when a speeding tram derailed and hit a station, killing a 23-year-old art student. On 15 February, Nihad Uk, the Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton, announced that he was resigning after young people took to the streets.
“The message from my fellow citizens, the message from young people, is important to me – certainly more important than my position. And when I have to choose between the voice and courage of young people on the one hand, and my position on the other, the choice is clear”, Uk said in his resignation letter.
The resignation placed the cantonal government in a “technical mandate”, under which it continues routine operations but refrains from major strategic decisions.
On 16 February, Senad Mujagić, Director of Sarajevo’s public transport company (GRAS) also resigned. In his public address, Mujagić defended the company’s safety standards and insisted the tram involved in the incident was “technically sound”.
The citizens, mostly young people, gathered in front of the National Museum and the Cantonal Government building in Sarajevo, near the intersection where the accident occurred, demanding full transparency in the judicial investigation, the immediate withdrawal of all unsafe, antiquated vehicles from service, as well as “systemic accountability for the management of GRAS”.
At the beginning of today’s protest, one of the participants addressed the crowd, saying that teachers were constantly locking the students in schools and not allowing them to go to the protests. The Ministry of Education denied such a claim.
The Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor’s Office stated that it is continuing the investigation into the causes of the fatal tram accident, which, as they say, is being conducted in several directions, with a special emphasis on the technical correctness of the tram, BiH media outlets reported.
