Environmentalists Burst Into Closed Mining Conference at Belgrade Metropol Hotel

SEOS Activists (BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)

Activists of the Alliance of Environmental Organizations of Serbia (SEOS) on Nov. 7 burst into a closed meeting on mining at Belgrade Metropol Hotel, which was attended by representatives of foreign companies, embassies and the Mining and Energy Ministry.

The activists, led by Aleksandar Cuta Jovanovic, an MP of the Ecological Uprising, burst into the hotel and shouted outside the conference room “Boo” and "Rio Tinto, Get Out of Serbia!,” forcing the participants to leave the conference room and occupying it once it was emptied.  

The SEOS representatives demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the fact that no representative of Serbian state bodies was present at the meeting on mining and that it was held behind closed doors. Addressing the people in the room, which earlier hosted the mining conference, Ratko Ristic, a professor at the Belgrade Faculty of Forestry, said that “we have treason in Kosovo, while the rest of Serbia is up for grabs.”

Ristic also said that the EU had enough mining resources for their needs, and called on the EU to stop treating Serbia as “a neo-colonial project.” Earlier, SEOS held a news conference, saying that they had been denied participation at “the disgraceful meeting” on mining, noting they had been told that it was an expert meeting, although some of the participants did now the difference between “ore and mineral.”

Representatives of Movement Dveri and Oath Keepers and Democratic Party MP Tatjana Manojlovic were present at the news conference and the hotel incident.