Continuation of the blockade of the Kolašin–Mojkovac road: "They are driving us off our land"

Members of the informal association "Right to Ancestry and Private Property" continued their protest today by blocking the Kolašin-Mojkovac highway from 17.30:18.30 PM to XNUMX:XNUMX PM, as they claim, "in order to protect the right to private property and its disposal in the Biogradska Gora National Park (NP) zone."

The protest stated that the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Development of the North, and the Environmental Protection Agency have not responded to the requests and proposals of property owners within the borders of the National Park.

"We will continue with the protests, and we will decide where and at what location depending on the legal regulations and restrictions if they are passed — and they probably will — because in this country everything is at the expense and burden of the majority of citizens. However, even if they pass such a law, it is unconstitutional because it restricts the right of citizens to freely assemble, so we will have to send it for a constitutional review," said Svetozar Bogavac.

He reiterated that they blocked the highway "to the detriment of other citizens", but as he explained, "they were forced to do so in order to exercise their constitutional right, as well as due to the inaction and bureaucratic behavior of employees in state institutions".

Bogavac claims that representatives of the property owners, at a meeting held at the Public Enterprise National Parks of Montenegro (NPCG), indicated that cooperation with the local community when it comes to managing the NP does not exist.

"We announced that there is no such cooperation at all, that no one asks the local population anything, that they discriminate against us with their behavior, selectively apply justice, that they expel us from our property, from our ancestral lands with their actions. We also said that the local population protects the NP, and that we will not do so in the future if they do not change their attitude towards the local population," he said.

The protest reiterated that the members of the Association would seek the support of representatives of the European Union "for the purpose of mediating in resolving the issue with the competent state institutions."

Toma Bogavac from Bjelojevići near Mojkovac, who has been employed at the Biogradska Gora National Park for three decades, says he has always protected the park as if it were his own home. However, today, he claims, he faces pressure from his own company and state institutions to leave the family estate, which is partly located within the national park.

"I never thought that my company would force me to move away from my homeland, to stop engaging in agriculture and tourism, which are the basis of my family's existence. I have been denied the right to dispose of the property, to build the necessary facilities for living, production and livestock farming, despite the fact that my children continue to live and work on that land," he said.

He claims that the state, through certain actions, is making "the entire north leave its homes."