Five days ago, the locals blocked the passage of trucks and excavators across their land, and since then they have been camping on that spot. The mine that should be built there, they claim, is illegal because it does not have the necessary permits or concessions.
Locals of Bistrica near Prijedor in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are fighting day and night against a coal mine that should be built in their village – while the institutions are silent.
Why permanent duty?
“The other day they tore up the fence, so the wife of a neighbor who owns that land sat down and didn’t let them pass. This is an additional reason for us to draw people’s attention even more. There is always someone on duty, we hang out, we have barbecues in the evening,” says local resident Daniel Lazic.
In this village on the border of Prijedor and Banja Luka, where about 700 people live, preparatory work has been done, and temporary buildings have been erected, but coal mining has not yet started.
There are unmarked trucks and excavators at the location, but the locals say that it is the company “Drvo Export”, from Teslic in central BiH, which is confirmed by the documents that this company requested from the institutions of the Republika Srpska (RS) for the purpose of opening the mine.
This company initiated the procedure for obtaining a concession for coal exploration at the location of Bukova Kosa, also in the territory of Prijedor.
Session of the city assembly on mining
The planned mine in Bistrica was one of the topics of the City of Prijedor assembly session on mining on Thursday, June 29th.
The councilors concluded that it is necessary to temporarily stop all activities both in this village and on Bukova Kosa “until all the relevant documentation related to obtaining concessions is submitted”.
They asked the Ministry of Energy and Mining, the Inspectorate, and the Tax Administration of the RS to perform extraordinary control of all contracts for the exploration and exploitation of ore in Prijedor within 90 days and submit a report to the Assembly.
The mayor of Prijedor, Slobodan Javor, stated before the session that the city does not have any documentation about the mine and that all permits were issued by the Ministry, Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
