Riots in Mostar after Brazil-Croatia Football Match

19 June 2006

On the night of Thursday, June 13, ethnic riots and turmoil erupted in Mostar after the end of the Croatia-Brazil football match, played during the 2006 World Cup in Germany. One person suffered serious injury from a gun shot. Six members of the Police were also injured during the intervention that resulted in 26 arrests.

Mostar turned, once again, into a battlefield of nationalist passion.

The fighting erupted after a group of fans wearing t-shirts and insignia of the Croatian national team gathered on the Spanish Square in Mostar (the site of fierce and brutal fighting between Mostar�s Croatians and Bosniaks) and started demolishing shops and vehicles.

This provoked a reaction by a group of youths from Eastern (predominantly Bosniak) parts of Mostar. The two groups clashed and threw rocks and other objects at each other. The surrounding buildings and vehicles suffered great damages in the process.

The scuffle, lasting for several hours, was finally broken up by the riot police which had to use tear-gas to disperse the mob.

Representatives of the Abrasevic Youth Cultural Centre say that the incidents such as this are a result of the general despair of the youth in Mostar, which has no employment and no perspective for better life.

OKC Abrasevic blames the local and state authorities and institutions for lack of will and preparedness to assist the youth overcome this current situation, thus living them an easy prey to nationalist and xenophobic propaganda.

�We will not stand by and just wait for another, similar incident to appear. We pledge to stand firm on the battlefield for peace and safe future of the youth and the city of Mostar� say the representatives of OKC Abrasevic.