Thousands in Gornji Milanovac Against Lithium Mining

Rio Tinto's Information Center, Gornje Nedeljice(BETAPHOTO/MILAN TIMOTIC/DS)

In the evening on Aug. 8, several thousand people protested in Gornji Milanovac against lithium and boron mining. People held posters reading "Rio Tinto, get the hell out of Pranjani," "I don't want to croak like a mine dog," "Rio Tinto, stop your profit, not my future," "For clean air, clean water, for the future, no Rio Tinto," etc., and carried Serbian flags.

University of Belgrade professor Ivanka Popovic said in her speech that the Jadar project was "the embodiment of the authorities' unscrupled behavior and the uncontrolled and colonial activities of investors." "We fear that those who are governing our country are doing so only for their own personal gain and for the benefit of their business partners, without paying the well-being of other citizens any mind," said Popovic.

She said there were no independent institutions in Serbia which citizens could trust to work objectively and in their interest. "When the system is rigged to work for particular interests, as it is in our country, every project is compromised, especially a capital one like Jadar," said Popovic.

She underscored that the citizens must persevere in their demand to the Serbian government to ban geological exploration of lithium and boron and their exploitation. "We are demanding that not because we are opposed to development, but rather because we want to responsibly and prudently manage resources in our country, and for our descendants to have the same chances as we did, to breathe clean air, to have drinking water and to walk on unpolluted soil," said Popovic.

Cacak Faculty of Agronomy professor Dusan Brkovic praised in his speech the healthcare workers in Gornji Milanovac who had made a public appeal against lithium and boron mining, and said that the citizens had gathered to say "a big NO!" to global capital and a group of Serbian strongmen who were "ready for various misdeeds." "On one side stands enormous capital and enormous power, but our prudent family man knows that the land and soil that have fed us and will feed us are not for sale," said Brkovic.

On Aug. 8, protests against lithium mining were also held in Krusevac, Zajecar, Subotica, and Smederevska Palanka. So far, civil protests have taken place in 41 towns across Serbia with the demand that a law be adopted which would permanently ban geological exploration and exploitation of lithium and boron in Serbia.