The locals of Bistrica near Prijedor have been fighting against the opening of a lignite mine in their village for a month, and yesterday and tonight their rebellion was spiced up with a neighborly gathering around a barbecue.
Source: Zoran Ninić, resident of Bistrica
Locals claim that the road was illegally broken for the passage of trucks and excavators to the site of the future, as they say, illegal mine.
Yesterday, they called geometers and based on their findings, they say, it turned out that the suspicions of the people of Bistrica were justified. The road covers parts of the residents’ property and is almost twice as wide as it was “planned”: instead of three meters, the road is about five meters wide.
“That’s why, based on the geodetic findings, we went to a protest last night and set up bollards, in order to protect our neighbors’ properties from violent appropriation. The police also came to the scene, which was called by the director of the ‘investor’, the Telsic company ‘Drvoexport’, but the policemen did not intervene,” explained local resident Daniel Lazić, writes Srpskainfo.
The steps that the locals put up this morning were pulled out, and then the people of Bistrica spontaneously decided to defend their rights with a living wall.
“We sit on the road and do not allow trucks and excavators to pass through our neighbors’ land to the construction site where they destroy our village by digging,” said one local woman.
She added that they sit in pairs “so they don’t get bored”.
But, the people of Bistrica will certainly not be “boring” tonight, because the “on duty” were joined by numerous locals, who lit a barbeque for the neighborhood on the controversial road.
They say they will stay all night, and the duty will continue tomorrow.
“It’s harvest time, we have a lot of work to do, but thank God there are enough of us both for the field and for the defense of the village,” said Daniel Lazić.
(World)