The destruction of the bed of the Tara River during the construction of the Kolašin-Mataševo highway section has not yet received a final judicial epilogue, and a good part of the criminal charges since 2018, when the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS) first alerted the public about the state of the environment, have been dismissed. is.
Some of the proceedings in the basic courts in Kolašin and Podgorica are still ongoing, and there is no end in sight. Proceedings are being conducted against the highway contractor, the Chinese company "China road and bridge corporation" (CRBC), due to the excavation of gravel from the bed of the Tara River, i.e. the damage caused to the fish stock.
The initial criminal complaint of MANS and several environmental NGOs from 2018 and 2019 against those responsible at the time in the CRBC company, but also in the ministries of transport and sustainable development and tourism, as well as environmental and water inspection, members of the highway works supervision commission, were dropped in 2020.
Proceedings are ongoing in Kolašin, returned for a new decision in Podgorica
In Kolašin, proceedings are still ongoing based on the ODT indictment from March 2021, which refers to the "excavation of gravel material from the bed of the Tara river, as well as the construction of the embankment on the right side of the river bed from excess material created by the excavation of the Pajkov Vir tunnel ' and at the location of subsection 4.1/Uvač 4- Most Pajkov vir".
According to the indictment, the execution of these works began "without a previously submitted application for construction and prescribed documentation, without the revised main project and without the consent of the competent institutions".
Previously, environmental protection measures were allegedly not found either, which, as ODT claims, "caused damage to the environment to a greater extent and over a wider area."
In the Basic Court in Podgorica, the repeated proceedings are ongoing, based on the lawsuit of the Sports and Fishing Society (SRD) "Tara i Morača" against the Chinese company.
"Tara i Morača", which in accordance with the contract with the Ministry of Agriculture managed the fish stock in the waters of Kolašin, requested in 2019 compensation for the damage caused by "CRBC to fish and other aquatic organisms".
Their lawsuit was first decided by the Commercial Court, which after five months and two hearings declared itself incompetent and suggested that it should be decided by the Basic Court.
The proceedings before the Basic Court in Podgorica ended in November 2021 with a verdict, according to which CRBC is obliged to pay around 200.000 euros due to the destruction of fish and other wildlife in Tara during the construction of the Bar-Boljare highway.
However, the second-instance court, after the appeal of the Chinese company, ordered the repetition of that procedure, among other things, as SRD's lawyer told "Vijesta" Vladimir Čađenović, and due to the presentation of additional evidence. All this, he explains, takes time, so we cannot yet speak of the process ending soon.
With the contested first judgment, the court obliged CRBC to pay damages on three grounds. It was estimated that the damage from the destruction of fish and other aquatic organisms is 34.500 euros. Compensation for actual and future damages due to lost yield or natural growth of fish for the period from April 27, 2018 to April 27, 2024 is calculated at 60.750 euros. CRBC was also supposed to pay 87.600 euros for damages caused by the impossibility of issuing fishing licenses due to the death of fish and other aquatic organisms for the same period.
"Flirting" with jurisdiction, then rejecting the criminal complaint
In October 2018, MANS, in cooperation with several environmental NGOs, submitted a criminal complaint to the then Supreme State Prosecutor's Office against the responsible persons in the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, as well as the environmental and water inspection, members of the highway works supervision commission. and the contractor - the company CRBC.
As they stated at the time, the criminal complaint was filed due to the well-founded suspicion that they abused their official position, negligently performed their official duty of supervision, and caused environmental pollution, which ultimately resulted in the devastation of Tara.
The MANS research center previously published images showing that the riverbed, on a section slightly longer than five kilometers, in the part between Mateševo and Jabuka, is unrecognizable and degraded, with "displaced riverbed, changed bottom and bank structures with decimated biodiversity and landscape".
In the criminal report, the competent responsible persons are accused of having, in violation of regulations and international conventions, illegally used their official position and enabled the contractor to obtain benefits for themselves by committing criminal acts that devastated the Tara river bed and caused great damage to the environment and natural resources.
In addition to MANS, the signatories of the application are the NGO Green Home, the Montenegrin Society of Ecologists, the Center for Protection and Study, EXPEDITIO and Our Action.
That criminal report was supplemented in June 2019.
The then special prosecutor Milivoje Katnic informed MANS and other organizations in March 2020 that, after obtaining the documentation, it was decided that the destruction of the Tara bed is not a job for SDT. For this reason, the report was forwarded to the Basic State Prosecutor's Office (ODT) in Podgorica.
In April 2020, the then prosecutor of the ODT Podgorica, and now the special prosecutor, Vukas Radonjic, informed MANS that it was decided that "criminal prosecution of a person for a criminal offense for which he is being prosecuted ex officio will not be undertaken".
MANS requested that the Higher State Prosecutor's Office review that decision, but they only forwarded it to the then convocation of the Prosecutor's Council.
Almost three years later, "Vijesti" was told by the Prosecutor's Council that the complaint of MANS was considered on November 25, 2020 and that it was decided that it was unfounded.
"In this case alone, it is clear that in the earlier period there was no real political will to sanction an obvious violation of the law, and it is almost unbelievable that only the competent prosecutor's office did not see the devastation of the Tara River, nor did they bother to find out who in the state apparatus was responsible for that. The procedure for reviewing such a decision of the competent prosecutor's office is a process that is still not transparent, and now does not contribute to increasing the responsibility in the work of the prosecution organization. There is a serious fear that this very process will continue to be a challenge for the new, reformed Prosecutor's Council, which we hope recognizes just how important its role is for the comprehensive reform of the prosecution", MANS said in a statement to "Vijesti".
The first section of the "Princess Xenia" highway, 41 kilometers long, was opened on July 13 last year.
Construction lasted more than seven years, almost one billion euros were invested, and the opening was postponed five times.
The tear of Europe protected, and in the end left alone
Tara is protected with six different levels of protection, and in addition to World Natural Heritage, it also belongs to a location of importance for European game and natural habitats.
Its destruction was continued during the construction of the highway, although some domestic, as well as European and international environmental protection experts, warned that this should not be done, that the recovery would be expensive and slow.
Thus, he is a European expert in the protection of nature and the environment Roel Slutweg previously told "Vijesta" that the plans, which envisage the revitalization of the destroyed area of the river by 2027 - do not make sense.
And the World Organization for the Protection of Nature (WWF) also warned that in the case of Tara, state inspection bodies failed.
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