Serbia: Hundreds rally for nationwide ban on lithium mining in Belgrade

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Hundreds protested lithium mines operating in the country in front of the Presidency building in Belgrade on Thursday.
Following the gathering, protesters marched through the streets of the Serbian capital holding signs denouncing the mining practice.
“We are demanding a complete ban on the exploitation, the exploration and the processing of lithium and boron in Serbia because that would take care of the problem from the root, and we will not leave until the problem is solved properly because our politicians are completely lying to us,” said actress and protest organiser Bojana Novakovic.
The rally came amid claims that the Rio Tinto mining company is continuing to buy land in the Jadar and Radjevina region in Western Serbia, despite Prime Minister Ana Brnabic announcing at the end of January that Rio Tinto’s permission had been cancelled to prevent further mining and exploration in the area.
Demonstrators argued that Brnabic’s decision was temporary and was made only because of upcoming general elections in April due to fear of losing votes.
Local environmental activists claim that lithium mining would present major environmental issues.

SOT, Marija Vlaskovic, Protester from Rekovac (Serbian): “We came here to support the fight against lithium mining. We came here from Rekovac as you can see from our banner, we are fighting, here we are.”

SOT, Dragan Krajicic, Protester from Nedeljice (Serbian): “Our request is a Serbia without any lithium or boron mines. We want them (Rio Tinto) to remove the pipes they put in the ground in my village of Nedeljice, to plant trees in the forests that they cut, to close their branches and to get out of Serbia.”

SOT, Dragan Filipovic, Protester from Cikota (Serbian): “We don’t want any mines. We are fighting to stay where we are, not to be moved or relocated from there, we want to do our jobs that we’ve been doing so far. Simply, we want to stay in our centuries-old lands.”

SOT, Bojana Novakovic, Actress and protest organiser: “The reason that we are here is because the Serbian government announced that Rio Tinto’s Jadar project was annulled. Within the context of our legal system, the political action is the first to act in a legal procedure that is supposed to take place for the annulment of all the licenses and all the permits. That legal procedure never took place. That announcement was simply a political act and a political game to shut up our protest before the election.”

SOT, Bojana Novakovic, Actress and protest organiser: “So, now, what we are demanding is legislative reform, we are demanding a complete ban on the exploitation, the exploration and the processing of lithium and boron in Serbia because that would take care of the problem from the root, and we will not leave until the problem is solved properly because our politicians are completely lying to us.”

#Serbia #Belgrade #Mining #RioTinto #Lithium #Boron

Video ID: 20220211-001

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