After the Special Prosecutor's Office announced that it had "formed a case" regarding the criminal complaint for the illegal commissioning of the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant, and the ODT in Pljevlja is still conducting an investigation on the same grounds, the public is once again witnessing a scenario that, according to civic and environmental activists, has been repeating itself for years without concrete results.
Executive Director of the NGO Breznica, Milorad Mitrović, recalls that the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant began operation without a completed system for flue gas desulfurization and denitrification, and without the consent of the environmental inspector.
"The illegal commissioning of the Thermal Power Plant is not an incident, but a continuation of a long-standing practice of systemic poisoning of a city and conscious destruction of the health of its residents, with full protection from state institutions," Mitrović said in a statement.
He points out that the SDT and ODT are "undertaking reconnaissance activities" and "collecting documentation", but that the citizens of Pljevlja, as he says, do not see any reason for optimism.
"We have heard these phrases countless times. They were always an introduction to the same epilogue: no one is guilty, no one is held accountable, and the crime is quickly forgotten," the statement said.
Particularly problematic is the fact that the public still does not know who made the decision to put the Thermal Power Plant into operation without completed ecological systems and who gave consent to the law being, as it is stated, "grossly violated."
"This is not a procedural oversight, but a serious violation of the law. Everything else is an attempt to present the crime as an administrative error," says Mitrović.
It also recalls previous cases, especially the poisoning of the Ćehotina and Vezišnica rivers in 2019, which, despite investigations at the time, remained without a judicial epilogue.
"The public was presented with the same show, surveys, expert opinions, checks. Result: zero responsible parties," points out the well-known Pljevlja ecologist.
In that case, the Electric Power Company of Montenegro, as recalled, paid almost 350.000 euros to the "Lipljen" Sports Fishing Club for alleged damage repair and stocking.
"That money has disappeared. There was no restocking. If this is not institutionalized corruption, then it is open robbery under the protection of the state," the statement said.
Criticism was also directed at the judiciary, which, according to the statement's author, discussed technical details in the court proceedings more than the ecological disaster.
"The court debated whether the sample of poisoned water was taken from a 'Coca-Cola' or 'Fanta' bottle, while the death of wildlife and the threat to human health remained in the background."
The criminal charges were then withdrawn at the final hearing, without explanation, which, it is pointed out, sent a clear message that "poisoning is allowed in Pljevlja."
Mitrović warns that the same pattern is being repeated today, while citizens are bearing the consequences.
"While responsibility is being shifted, the citizens of Pljevlja continue to suffocate, poison, get sick and die," they say, adding that in just 11 months of 2025, 339 people died, while the natural increase is minus 202.
"These are not demographic trends, but the consequence of decades of institutional violence against a city," Mitrović said, adding that Pljevlja has become a "colony of Podgorica."
The role of institutions, which are allegedly acting as accomplices, is particularly criticized.
"The prosecution, inspections and courts are not a mechanism for protecting citizens, but a shield for polluters," he claims.
If this case ends without the names and surnames of those responsible, it will be clear, says Mitrović, that environmental crimes in Montenegro are not the exception, but the rule.
He also criticized the dynamics of the so-called ecological reconstruction of the Thermal Power Plant.
"For every previous regime, including the current one, Pljevalja has always been just a statistic, and its citizens, collateral damage. Every new silence from the institutions means complicity in the crime of poisoning and death of citizens. Reconstruction has become an excuse, not a solution, while deadlines move like smoke above Pljevalja, always present, never caught. We will measure tests until June 2026, and until then only the number of sick people and the degree of patience of citizens will be measured. This is no longer a technical problem, but a political and moral decision to sacrifice people's health for the sake of someone's irresponsibility and false efficiency in the frantic race for profit. Every new silence from the institutions means complicity in the crime of poisoning and death of citizens," warns the executive director of Breznica.
The response concludes that the problem is no longer technical, but political and moral.
"The citizens of Pljevlja are filling their lungs with sulfur, and the public is being sold a story about 'technical advances' and 'hot tests' that have been going on for years. DeNOx works, DeSOx doesn't work, but the old deception matrix is functioning perfectly: buy time, relativize the damage, and hope that people will get used to it," Mitrović points out.
He reminds that the deadline given by the environmental inspection to the EPCG management to launch the desulfurization plant has expired, but no one is reacting even though the inspection order has not been complied with. As Mitrović claims, the public is being deceived, and EPCG is generating huge revenues to the detriment of the health of the population of Pljevlja.
"The deadline has passed, the smoke remains. The government gave a 30-day deadline, EPCG issued a statement. Instead of desulfurization, we continue to hear phrases, instead of cleaner air, we get a new promise, 'final preparations'," Mitrović concluded.
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