The citizens' initiative Save Sinjajevina (GISS) said that it has not sat idly by since 2020, and it certainly will not, until the training ground is formally removed from Sinjajevina.
They pointed out that the human shield is ready to defend Sinjajevina in May and always.
"The civil initiative Save Sinjajeva's fourth year of existence, and the second anniversary of the largest environmental protest, which ended on this day in 2020, welcomes as the youngest member of the global pacifist movement World BEYOND War (WBW), our ally that represents the interests of Sinjajeva in North America ", it is stated in the announcement of the Civic Initiative Let's Save Sinjajevina.
On this day, as they say, two years ago, they parted ways with Margita after the biggest and longest environmental protest in the history of Montenegro.
"We were a human shield for the defense of our mountain against the intention of the then government to devastate it ecologically by building a NATO military training ground on it. The human shield is never more alive today and we are ready to wait for May, when we are still threatened with a military exercise on Sinjavina." , they said.
That Saturday, December 5, 2020, when they parted ways, was, as they point out, a day of hope that things would take a better course for Sinjajevina, that all anxieties and fears about the destruction of the mountain would disappear, and that the new expert Government of Montenegro would , correct the mistakes of their predecessors.
Unfortunately, that did not happen, as they say.
"On the contrary, we encounter the same ignorant attitude, and the official reports of the Government do not even mention the protests in Sinjajevina, and the 2020 exercise, which was prevented thanks to us, is said to have been postponed due to the corona virus," they added in the announcement.
Sinjajevina, as they claim, was not protected by any virus in 2020, but by a very healthy idea of honest and benevolent people from the whole of Sinjajevina and from all of Montenegro, who defended the mountain with their bodies, day and night for 51 days, and materially supported the protest, for which we , and we will always be, immensely grateful.
They are sure, as they say, that everyone who was with them in 2020 will be with them in 2023 as well, if there is a need for it.
In the meantime, the expert government was replaced by a minority government, with which, as they say, "the darkest fears and forebodings have become vampires".
They point out that in every evil there is a grain of good, at least, as they say, the truth has been revealed.
"The story about the formation of a training ground on Sinjajevina "only" for the needs of the Montenegrin army turned out to be a blatant lie. We realized that it was just throwing dust in the eyes of the people, to hide the fact that it was a NATO training ground, accepted by the previous government," said the Citizens' Initiative Save Sinjajevina.
This, they say, was testified to by the former Minister of Defense Raško Konjević, speaking about the obligations that Montenegro undertook towards NATO, and at the Government session, where the obligations towards that military alliance were widely discussed, and none of the ministers mentioned the people from Sinjajevina. , to whom he has prior obligations than obligations to anyone else.
They ask if it is possible for only one minister, the Minister of Justice Marko Kovač, to take a clear stand against the military training ground?
"The citizens' initiative Save Sinjajevina has not sat idly by since 2020, and it certainly won't, until the training ground is formally removed from our mountain," they said.
They point out that they are building a network of alliances around the world, and in the past two years they have become part of the renowned world organizations ICCA consortium, International land coalition, and now World BEYOND War, with whom they submitted a global petition to the Government and the EU Delegation in July of this year with a clear request to the decision on the military training ground is annulled, and Sinjajevina is declared a protected area in the management of which the local community will actively participate.
"The decision on the military training ground does not only represent the destruction of public property that belongs to all citizens of Montenegro and the generations yet to come, but also the seizure and destruction of private property on some parts of the mountain where the military training ground is planned. This truly represents an outrageous act of government arbitrariness and violation basic human rights and the Constitution," they emphasize.
As they say, there was no response from the Government, and the only commendable reaction was the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism, which asked the municipalities for their consent to declare Sinjajevina a protected area.
They add that not a single municipality, to which Sinjajevina gravitates, has yet declared even a meter of Sinjajevina a regional park.
They point out that everyone is silent, including Mojkovac, Kolašin, Šavnik and Žabljak.
They add that Danilovgrad is also silent, although their herdsmen drive the most numerous herds to Sinjajevina.
They use their silence in the current government, as they state, as an excuse not to propose the cancellation of the decision on the military training ground, although there is not a single obstacle for that, at least officially.
"Ministers in the government, at least those who were with us at Margita in 2020 with the promise that they would do it when they come to power, can already at the next session propose and adopt a decision to cancel the decision on the military training ground on Sinjajevina," they said.
The citizens' initiative Save Sinjajevina has, as they state, continued its mission and struggle in the previous two years, their goal, they add, has not and will not change.
They emphasize that they will continue to promote Sinjajevina as an ecological area, fight for the improvement of living conditions there, but also fight for its protection.
Since 2020, they claim, they have learned valuable lessons, and one of them is that they don't believe in nice words, only in actions.
"Deeds of the Government, from which we specifically ask for only one: Cancellation of the decision on the military training ground in Sinjajevina", they emphasize in the announcement.
They said that they are available to help the Government in canceling the decision on the training ground in Sinjajevina, and therefore they expect their representatives to join the working team dealing with that issue.
They claim that they know for sure that the first meeting of that team is being held today, symbolically on December 5, and exactly today, as they state, Prime Minister Dritan Abazović and Minister Filip Adžić have on the table their request for the inclusion of their representatives in the working group, because they themselves forgot that they call them.
"We expect the Government, which claims to cherish democratic and ecological values, to show it in action, because otherwise citizens will easily replace such ministers and parties, and will change them until they find those who will protect the people, not the interests of the white world. ", they conclude in the statement.
Bonus video:
