The protest organized by "Eco Guard", in support of environmental activists who were previously detained for opposing lithium mining, ended this evening in front of the headquarters of the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS).
At the end of the meeting, where environmental activists who were taken into custody spoke, it was said that RTS had reported on the protest, and that it was a success for those gathered.
At the meeting, the government was accused of "playing dirty", and everyone was appealed for solidarity with environmental activists who, as they said, will not stop their actions.
Citizens carried banners and slogans with inscriptions against the exploitation of lithium, and numerous activists spoke about everything that happened to them during their detention.
RTS was also criticized for not reporting on what environmental activists are facing, and the Public Service was asked to publish only the truth, and not to be in the service of the government.
Activist Zorana Crnojević, who was detained by the police when she was five months pregnant, said that people are now being brought to the streets by a theme that has no leader.
She said that "individuals are not the reason for the crowd gathering on the streets", so, as she stated, "not even pressure on individuals will prevent people from going to the streets".
"During a decade of activism, I experienced the loss of my job, hooligans gathering in front of my window, live threats and insults, reporting to the police and the police not responding," she said.
According to her, however, what is happening now is "a new level of undisguised misuse of state resources to persecute dissidents".
"Under the guise of posting on social networks, they carry out personal confrontations and break into people's houses with lists, harass them and take away their personal property... You have united activists who do not think the same and thank you for that...", she said.
Aleksandar Matković from the Institute of Economic Sciences said that threats to activists, scientists, and citizens of Serbia began two weeks ago, and that "our government watched passively."
"Rio Tinto was watching this, they were silent as if stunned. Is this normal", asked Matković,
He also stated that the Serbian government is trying "to establish a dictatorship in the name of foreign capital and corporations".
Director Stevan Filipović, who "became an environmental terrorist" on the website of the anonymous association "Kopajemo", said that the lists are made by authoritarian regimes, N1 television reported.
He added that this is always a sign that the regime is afraid and that it is losing control, he writes on the website of that television.
Activist Ivan Milosavljević Buki said that he receives death threats.
"People who point out that our lifelines are being cut off, that our villages near Bor are being displaced, that the same fate awaits Eastern Serbia, call us terrorists, foreign mercenaries..." he said.
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