Bojana Novaković Instagram – “We will attack Rio Tinto’s project with all the legal means at our disposal, and given the amount of legally dubious moves by them & the Government of Serbia we will have a lot of means.”
I spoke to @novinska_agencija_beta about the reinstatement RT’s lithium mine’s legal status.
According to Novakovic, this is another in a series of indicators that independent & functional institutions no longer exist in Serbia. “Each institution works in the service of the ruling party & for the interests of foreign corporations supported by that party.” Asked what would be the consequences of the eventual opening of a lithium mine, she said that fertile land would be destroyed & water sources poisoned.
“In the end we would end up a mining colony & a sacrifice zone on the periphery of Europe.” She added that much more serious consequences concern the problem of the climate crisis, “which will only worsen with the opening of new mines. We are in the midst of an extreme heat wave. It will get worse every year. Thousands of Serbian citizens have been without water for days because the heat wave has caused huge consumption & sources cannot handle it. The residents of Krivelj had their water cut off & diverted to the [ZiJin] mine. This clearly sends a message that people need to be silent but the mine will keep operating. On top of that chaos we’re talking about adding a lithium mine that consumes over 5,000 tons of water per day just for processing ore. Mines are not the solution to the climate crisis. Maintaining fertile land like the Jadar valley is the solution.”
She reminded us that that three years ago “there were large blockades in the cities and we managed to halt the project, at least temporarily. If the government thinks we’ll surrender peacefully & let them ravage our country, then they don’t know the people. We are even more furious now. They can only expect even more radical actions from us.”
Commenting on the visit of German Chancellor @bundeskanzler and Vice President of the
@europeancommission @maros.sefcovic regarding the agreement on Critical Raw Materials, Novaković said they will be welcomed grandly. “But they will return to Europe empty-handed.” | Posted on 17/Jul/2024 20:52:39
