'War of Rallies' Underlines Bosnian Serb Divisions

Tens of thousands of Bosnian Serbs gathered at two parallel rallies on Saturday in Banja Luka, the administrative centre of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska. Supporters of the ruling coalition gathered in the central Krajina square, while1.5 km away opposition supporters occupied Mladen Stojanovic park.

A strong police presence kept the rallies peaceful. More than 2,000 policemen secured both gatherings and established a wedge separating the two locations.

Media loyal to the RS government claimed the ruling bloc gathered 30,000 people and the opposition less than 10,000. Media organizations supporting the opposition said that bloc gathered more than 20,000 and pegged attendance at the pro-government rally at less than 10,000.

The contradictory information underlined both bloc'sintentions to use the Saturday'sdemonstrations as a show of power ahead of the upcoming local elections scheduled for October.

Each bloc in Saturday's "war of rallies" gathered around 10,000 people according to police and independent journalist's estimates.

Both blocs assembled supporters from throughout Republika Srpska.  Police officials told BIRN that 390 buses came into Banja Luka from different parts of the country to feed both rallies.

Other sources told BIRN that the ruling coalition ordered all employees from the administration and public companies to attend or be sacked on Monday.

Drago and Ilija both came from the eastern town of Zvornik, but each arrived on different busses. Drago is unemployed and came to support the opposition, while Ilija works in the Zvornik municipality and supports the ruling bloc.

"We are fed up with thieves in the government. We should have done this long time ago," Drago said at the rally...