The JMBG protests were demonstrations in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina between June–July 2013. The acronym JMBG stands for Jedinstveni matični broj građana, the identification number granted to citizens. Due to political bickering along ethnic lines, assignment of JMBG was allowed to expire in February 2013 by the politicians representing the ethnic groups that constitute Bosnia. As a result, children born after February were not assigned a JMBG number and, therefore, could not obtain medical cards or passports.
Etymology
The protests have been called Bebolucija and the JMBG protests.
Background
In May 2011, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared the law on Unique Master Citizen Numbers, which is needed to request passports and other administrative documents, was unconstitutional, due to the fact that one of its articles did not contain the new names of a handful of municipalities in the Serb entity, Republika Srpska. The Serbs perhaps desire to have the Serb-majority Republika Srpska entity half of the country secede from Bosnia and become its own country. Therefore, the Serb lawmakers wanted the ID numbers to demonstrate this division. The Bosniaks and the Croats claimed the Serb request further divided the country. The Court ordered the Bosnian parliament to amend the law within six months. But as the six-month period elapsed and no decision was reached by parliamentarians, the Court suspended the law altogether in January 2013. As a result of the blocked legislation, babies born after February 2013 did not have passports or health insurance because those demand a personal ID number.
Protests
The protests started on 5 June 2013 when a group of citizens gathered in front of the Parliament building to protest. The small protest evolved into a blockade of the building by the next day. Thousands of people formed a chain around Bosnia's parliament, preventing politicians from going home until the ethnic bickering within government ended and the JMBG issue was resolved. By 11 June, an estimated 10,000 protesters were present around parliament. Continuing protests urged lawmakers to pass a law to prevent such situations in the future. They demanded a new law on personal ID numbers after the old one fell out of force in February 2013. The government agreed to start giving temporary ID numbers until a new law is passed, but protesters demanded a more permanent solution. Young mothers with babies without of personal documents pushed their carriages between protesters and special police forces, while Sarajevo cabdrivers blocked streets around the building. At the midst of the protests, on 16 June 2013, three-month old Berina Hamidović died as a result of being denied entree into neighboring Serbia for urgent life-saving medical treatment because the infant couldn't get a passport due to not being granted an identification number. Protesters held a candle-lit vigil outside parliament to mourn her death and demand change. Protesters set the deadline of 30 June 2013 for a new law.
