The civil initiative Save Sinjajevina (GISS) assessed that the Ministry of Defense is trying at all costs to implement the disputed and illegitimate decision of the Government from September 2019, by which Sinjajevina was declared a military training ground, before it could be abolished, and now with the help of foreign military experts and advisors are painted "green" with the intention of transforming the territory of life into the territory of death and destruction.
They reacted on the occasion of a visit by British military experts, responsible for the management and conservation of Salisbury Plain, a protected area used as a military training ground in Great Britain.
While the Ministry of Defense says that the goal of the visit was to exchange experiences, obtain useful advice and suggestions, with a special emphasis on civil-military cooperation, in GISS they see a persistent bypassing of domestic scientific institutions and independent international scientific researchers, and ignoring pastoral communities that have been living and they use Sinjajevina.
In that organization, they point out that there is an attempt by the Ministry of Defense to seize the land "from its real owners - livestock farmers" and turn it into a training ground, which is contrary to the numerous promises of Prime Minister Dritan Abazović that Sinjajevina will not be a military training ground, as well as the efforts of the Ministry of Ecology and the Agency for Nature and Environmental Protection to protect this area.
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In GISS, they also answer to Great Britain's ambassador, Karen Maddox, with whom, they say, they agree that Sinjajevina is beautiful and has untouched nature.
However, "her attempt to draw a parallel between Salisbury Plain and Sinjajevina is seen as a complete lack of understanding of the issue as she clearly does not have a command of the matter".
"The finding that a key factor in the preservation of Salisbury Plain was precisely that this area has been used for military exercises for a long time cannot be applied to Sinjajevina in any case, and it misleads the lay public. In Great Britain, the country where industrialization and urbanization have almost completely destroyed the wildlife, it is understandable that the prohibition of access to people in the area of Salisbury Plain, where military exercises have been carried out for a long time, has led to a certain restoration of the living world. In contrast, the Montenegrin mountains, especially Sinjajevina, have remained almost untouched by the processes of urbanization and hypercapitalist expansion, and the biodiversity and wealth of this ecosystem are a direct result of the sustainable presence of people, i.e. livestock communities, which are the best and only guarantor of its protection and preservation," GISS said.
They add that Montenegro is territorially 17,6 times smaller than Great Britain and that it does not have the luxury of turning 120 square kilometers of the unique mountain pasture in Europe into a training and shooting range, and neglecting its citizens and depriving them of their centuries-old hearths.
They point out that the experience of British experts, however valuable it may be for the area of the already existing military training ground on Salisbury Plain, cannot be applied to Sinjajevina, except in a way to mislead the public that there is "science" behind the decision to establish a military training ground.
"These experts are sent by the Ministry of Defense of one of the leading members of the NATO alliance, and they cannot in any way be considered an independent and impartial voice of science. Doesn't Montenegro have its own intellectual strength and dignity to manage its own resources? Why are the domestic and independent international scientific community being bypassed? Examples Larzac in France and the Dolomiti d'Ampezzo Nature Park in Italy, where scientific research and democratic processes have protected precious nature and people and prevented the devastation of those areas by turning them into military training grounds, are more adequate examples to be compared with Sinjejevina. In light of this latest attempt by the MoD Montenegro, in cooperation with British experts, to implement the decision on the military training ground in Sinjajevina at any cost before it could be abolished, we cannot help but recall the statements and convictions of the former Minister of Defense Predrag Bošković and other military officials that the training ground is in question only for the Montenegrin army," they point out in GISS.
The organization reminds that the Ministry of Ecology and the Agency for the Protection of Nature and Life proposed Sinjajevina as a protected area, that the European Parliament decisively expressed its disappointment that despite the initial progress, the issue of Sinjajevina has not yet been resolved, and that, on the contrary, the Minister of Defense Raško Konjević upon his return from the summit of the NATO alliance in Madrid, stated that the Ministry and the Army of Montenegro are preparing military exercises in Sinjajevina.
"How is it that the voice of Great Britain, which left the European Union, is heard, while the recommendations and laws of the European Union, with which we are in accession negotiations, are ignored? Why is the Constitution of Montenegro, the Aarhus Convention, the Berne Convention, the Emerald Network and Natura 2000 being forgotten? Where are the democratic principles and the participation of citizens in deciding on vital life issues," asked GISS.
They remind that they recently submitted to the Government and the European Union a petition with more than 22.000 signatures demanding the immediate cancellation of the decision on the Military Training Ground and the declaration of Sinjajevina as a protected area.
Now, as they state, they have a message for the Ministries of Agriculture and Economic Development, which they ask to urgently announce themselves on this issue, to publicly state their views on the intention to use the largest Balkan pasture and the most valuable livestock resource of Montenegro, as well as huge tourist potential, turn it into a practice-shooting room for shooting matches.
"Citizens of Montenegro gathered around the idea of preserving Sinjajevina and its herders are not a political organization. This civic initiative brings together people of the most diverse political beliefs, but they all share the same understanding of public interest and common good, they all equally understand the need to protect the nature and resources of Montenegro. Our demands are based in the Constitution of Montenegro as an ecological state, in EU laws and international conventions, in the principles of true democracy.Supported by numerous citizens of the world and international organizations including World Beyond War, International Land Coalition and ICCA Consortium, as well as independent scientific workers and institution, we will not give up our legitimate demands, democratic rights and fight for the cancellation of the harmful decision on the military training ground and the final protection of Sinjajevina and its people", conclude in GISS.
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