Protest in Murina: "Next time no truck with forest timber will pass"

A group of citizens of the municipality of Plav and the local center of Murina gathered this morning in Murina to warn forest concessionaires that they will not be able to carry out further exploitation until a new government is formed, a new minister of agriculture and a new director of the Forestry Administration are appointed.

They requested that all previous concession contracts be reviewed, the manner in which the concessionaires obtained them, and that a financial review of the business be carried out.

"We are interested in who benefited and how much, which individuals or groups of people they are, and why wood processing was shut down in our area and in all northern municipalities. We do not believe that anyone is satisfied with this way of exploiting forests, which are the basic wealth in our area", said the president of the Murino Local Community, Brano Otašević.

She asked why the Law on Forests is not respected and part of the funds are not paid to the Municipality and the local community.

"From the year 2000 until now, the concessionaires have not made official payments to the account of the Municipality or our local community from whose territory they cut. A huge forest was cut down, and we did not have any benefits in any local community, and I think that now we have reached a critical point," said Otašević.

He said that it is possible that the concessionaires were handing out money to someone.

"We have no evidence for that, but we have doubts and assumptions. In general, the local population in the areas where it is cut does not benefit at all," said Otašević.

According to him, the main concessionaire in that area, Ratko Pelengić, better known by the nickname Ratko Bosanac, destroyed large areas in the area of ​​the Murinska River, where there were rainforest complexes.

"He also destroyed the mountain Mokra, which belongs to Berane, Andrijevica and Plav, and he did not plant a single new seedling anywhere, nor did those municipalities and the local population receive a single cent from the concessions that he obtained in who knows what way," said MZ President Murino.

Local resident Ljubiša Mijović added that this gathering today on the square in Murina is just a warning and that they will go to the field to warn the concessionaire.

"The next time we gather, not a single truck with forest material will be able to pass," Mijović said.

Residents of other northern cities these days have also requested that a moratorium on forest cutting be urgently introduced until a new government is formed, because, as they say, it has been noticed that "well-known tycoons are using the time to quickly cut down as much forest as possible, knowing that it has finally come to an end ".