In the hundred days of the new government, not a single person from the competent ministries of agriculture and ecology was interested in the problem of poaching in Skadar, nor in other lakes or rivers.
Environmental activist Aleksandar Dragićević told "Vijesti" that yesterday, after the attack on the head of the Skadar Lake National Park Protection Service, Vuk Saičić and his colleague Marko Gluščević.
"There was no interest in continuing the fight against the forestry mafia, and illegal gravel exploiters are slowly returning to the riverbeds. I hope that we don't wait for someone to die so that ministers, secretaries and other government officials start doing their jobs and act in accordance with their responsibilities," he said.
Assault then arrest
Yesterday afternoon, on suspicion of having attacked and slightly injured Saičić and Gluščević two nights ago, the police officers arrested Vojin Prenkić (31) and Dušan Klikovac (42).
The prosecutor qualified their actions as an attack on an official in the performance of official duties and illegal hunting.
At the same time, he assessed that there were no elements of a criminal offense in the actions of the monk of the Kom monastery, who, according to Saičić, insulted the supervisors, threatened them, and then stole the phone he used to record him and threw it into the lake.
The Kom monastery denied those claims, stressing that the monk had no physical contact with anyone, nor did he insult anyone, "but his presence contributed to the end of this incident"...
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Saičić and Gluščević were attacked in the night between Saturday and Sunday on Lake Skadar, while they were trying to legitimize Prenkić and Klikovac, whom they found poaching. The video provided to "Vijesti" shows the beginning of the incident, i.e. how the supervisors try to stop the poachers, but they break away and start to beat them.
Saičić told "Vijesti" that it happened after the second time they caught up with the poachers, who were running away from them for about a kilometer.
"We issued a warning, which they ignored, and started to run away. We caught up with them after a kilometer and tried to hold them off. Then we also received blows with oars - me in the neck area, and my colleague Gluščević in the ribs area. One of them started to stab me with a stick and stabbed me in the area of the left forearm. Then the monk Philip came with a horn and started threatening us, accusing us of working with drugs across the lake and that we wouldn't be long... I took out my phone to record it, he came up to me, stole the phone and threw it into the lake. Then they ran away together into a narrow part among the bushes, through which we could not pass by speedboat, because it is bigger", said Saičić to "Vijesta".
Yesterday, the Police Administration officially announced that they had arrested Prenkić and Klikovac, that is, that they initially collected information from those two Zeć residents for the record and informed the prosecutor about everything:
"...By whose order they were deprived of liberty on suspicion of having committed the criminal offense of illegal fishing and the criminal offense of assaulting an official in the performance of official duties. In relation to the third person who is a participant in the event, the existence of misdemeanor liability will be appreciated, since in relation to the actions of that person, the prosecutor stated that there are no elements of a criminal offense", the UP announced.
Many are not comfortable with the fight against poaching
The director of JP National Parks of Montenegro, Vladimir Martinović, told "Vijesti" that the supervisors were attacked at their workplace, while performing their work tasks.
"Brave supervisors went unarmed into a confrontation with armed poachers. We are asking for adequate support from the police and the prosecutor's office. Many people do not like our fight against poaching, gamekeepers are endangered and we require systemic support, in order to deal with business worth hundreds of thousands of euros. We will continue with the same intensity to fight against poaching, and this and similar attempts will certainly not shake us in the strong fight to protect the most valuable areas of Montenegro", he said.
The Minister of Tourism, Ecology, Sustainable Development and Development of the North, Vladimir Martinović, announced that he condemned the attack on the supervisors, but also that he would reward Saičić and Gluščević for their courage...
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The monastery claims that the monk was fishing and that he did not offend anyone
The Kom monastery announced that their monk was not in the company of people who had an incident with the gamekeepers, that he did not steal Saičić's phone and throw it into the water, but that he reacted when he heard calls for help.
They point out that the monk was on the lake fishing with his own nets, for which he has a permit:
"In the late evening hours, a boat with gamekeepers passed by his vessel at high speed, sinking him and the boat, in addition to tearing the nets, which the monk had previously set legally," the statement reads.
It is added that the gamekeepers caught up with the chun with third parties, and that the monk, "being experienced on Lake Skadar, because he grew up next to it, assessed that the chun with third parties is also endangered and that it is possible to sink it".
"And he also heard calls for help, and he approached the meeting place of the other two vessels with his boat, solely for the reason of helping those he thought were in danger".
Bonus video:
