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Antigovernment Protests Continue In Sarajevo


Bosnians protest the lack of a law on social-security numbers for newborns in Sarajevo on June 10.
Bosnians protest the lack of a law on social-security numbers for newborns in Sarajevo on June 10.
SARAJEVO -- Antigovernment protests in Bosnia-Herzegovina have stretched into a second week, with hundreds of people marching through the streets of Sarajevo to rally outside the parliament.

The demonstrators say they want politicians to break through legislative deadlocks that have formed along ethnic lines.

The protests began on June 5 when a crowd of angry young parents besieged parliament, demanding lawmakers pass a law on national identification numbers needed by citizens to obtain passports and other documents.

The old law lapsed in February, leaving all babies born in the country since then without personal documents.

More than 1,500 lawmakers and others were trapped inside parliament by the protesters -- including mothers with baby carriages.

It wasn't until the next day, after a 12-hour standoff, that police freed those trapped inside parliament.

With reporting by AP

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