Bosnian Government Ignores Protesters' Suicide Threat

Unemployed veterans Sefik Muminovic, 55, and Dzemal Zahirovic, 59, returned to their home town of Zivinice on Tuesday afternoon after failing to get the help they were seeking to attract with their protest walk.
 
The two men made a 26-hour, 108-kilometre long walk along winding mountain roads from the northern industrial town to the capital where they attempted to get help with their impoverished situation from government officials or set fire to themselves in despair if no assistance was given.
 
But when they arrived to Sarajevo, local police took away bottles of petrol which they carried with them in order to carry out their suicide threat, while Bosnian government officials mostly ignored their pleas for assistance.
 
The two men had set out on foot on Monday morning cloaked in Bosnian national flags and carrying a handwritten poster with the slogan "Veterans condemned to death because of criminals and hunger".
 
They said they have nothing to lose and no other options because they and all their relatives have been unemployed for years.
 
"I cannot stand this life any more. I have been burning in poverty for 20 years," Zahirovic told local media.
 
"This is unbearable. I have no bread. The other day I was returning home and my granddaughter ran towards me and asked for one Convertible Mark [about 50 euro cents]. And I did not have even that to give," said Muminovic.
 
People along the road offered them food, drinks and even places to stay, but the two men pressed on, followed by police, journalists and few curious onlookers, as local media and social networks followed their progress towards Sarajevo.
 
Zahirovic and Muminovic told media that they would try to meet Bakir Izetbegovic, the Bosniak...