Veselin Zivkovic, a resident of Ostrovci, Niksic, claims that his neighbor Momcilo Bulajic has been setting on fire a meadow between their properties for five years and that he has been suffering minor or major damage for years, and that he reported the case to the police and firefighters, but the prosecutor’s office has not taken any action.
“It’s about a meadow owned by a man who moved to Vojvodina during colonization and passed away there, so the meadow is nobody’s and everybody’s. The neighbor set the vegetation on fire, and the flames spread to our property, often igniting our wooden fence, and a few years ago, even the chicken coop caught fire. All of this is particularly hard on my 83-year-old father, who is a heart patient,” said Zivkovic.
He claims that he reported the case to the police several times, who each time came and conducted an investigation, and detained a neighbor who, after giving a statement, allegedly said that he would do it again because “it’s his hobby and because the law protects him”.
“Last year, two fire trucks came and extinguished everything. As soon as they left, he set it on fire again from the other side of the meadow. So, he sets it on fire, and I put it out, and even the firefighters intervene, every year, I spend 70-100 euros on a wooden fence. My family and I fear him because he has also threatened us,” claims Zivkovic.
Bulajic admitted that he indeed sets fire to the vegetation in the mentioned meadow but does so because of snakes that allegedly appear and have even entered his brother’s house.
“We all mow our yards, and since this meadow is almost nobody’s, the vegetation grows large, so I set it on fire to prevent snakes from appearing. It’s not a fire but a smoldering flame, and when it gets to my fence or my neighbor’s fence, it’s not a problem to put it out. Firefighters intervened only once, and it’s true that the neighbor constantly reports me. Honestly, I don’t know why he does that because there is no harm. Perhaps he needs that meadow for some reason, so he does this,” said Bulajic.
The police said that until January 15th, Zivkovic had filed three reports regarding fires on his property in Ostrovci.
“On all three occasions, August 5th, September 9th, and December 17th, 2023, the police, at the request of the public prosecutor, conducted inspections in the presence of fire and explosion experts. Regarding all three incidents, the state prosecutor at the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Niksic stated that there are no elements of any criminal offense for which prosecution is initiated ex officio but that it is a criminal offense of destruction and damage to someone else’s property, which requires private prosecution,” the Montenegrin police stated, N1 writes.
E.Dz.
