DRAMA IN MOSTAR Bosniaks block access to Serb property with their bodies

(Patria) - A real drama is unfolding this morning in the village of Kuti near Mostar, where locals are blocking access to the property of their Serb returnee neighbors with their bodies, attempting to block the path of deminers engaged by a foreign investor to clear the Zukulja hill location in their village, in order to open a quarry there, Politicki.ba reports, citing Top Portal.

One demining team managed to reach the location of the future quarry early this morning. It is a private company engaged by BH Mak. There are about twenty deminers on site who are supposed to work and are waiting for BH Mak. The locals will try to block the passage of the rest of the demining team.

To make matters worse, half of the village of Kuti near Mostar has received a court injunction prohibiting them from obstructing access to the Zukulja quarry via the public road that passes through the land of Serb returnees in this area, specifically the Lozo family.

The Municipal Court in Mostar, presided over by Judge Šemsa Jogunović, issued a decision establishing a temporary security measure, ordering and prohibiting the locals of Loze and Omanovići from blocking access to the Zukulja quarry with their bodies or any obstacles, for investors as well as all people coming to and associated with the Zukulja quarry. The temporary measure specifies the parcels of the Lozo family's property through which the road passes.

The court issued this decision based on the lawsuit filed by the quarry "Majdan-Kuti".

The locals are desperate, embittered, and angry because no one is coming to their aid. The investor had previously obtained all permits, as well as a "paper" stating that the area was cleared and safe, and now deminers are being engaged.

Siniša Lozo says they no longer know what to do or whom to turn to for the obvious discrimination and persecution. "They want to evict us, to take our land. Let the whole world hear that in Mostar they are issuing us a court injunction preventing us from going to our land," says the desperate Siniša Lozo.

He states that ten locals have received a ban on gathering on their land.

His neighbor Aner Omanović, who, along with his Serb neighbors, was protecting their property, also received a ban. "Anis Kalajdžić, who killed his wife in the middle of Mostar, did not have a security measure, but we do. Elderly people, blind people, and women have received court injunctions," says Aner Omanović.

He reminds that the investor claims it is a public road, but that no one has been able to prove it for four years, as there is no doubt that it is private property.

"The investor obtained a document from BH Mak stating that it is a risk-free area from mines, based on which the investor obtained all documents, and today, after everything, they are starting demining. This is an exhausting struggle, intimidation of the locals," says Omanović.

Local Krsto is embittered by the behavior of both the Municipal Court in Mostar and the City Administration. "When the powerful trample the powerless, it is transparency, and when the powerless defend themselves, it is violence. That is what is happening in this place," says Lozo. He repeats that the road was built on their private land. "We are not preventing the use of the road, but we will not allow anyone to destroy our lives."

For years, the locals of Kuti, mostly Serb returnees and their Bosniak neighbors, have been trying to prevent what they claim is the illegal opening of a quarry, fearing they will become the new Donja Jablanica.

They use the fact that the road to the quarry is being cleared through their land as their last line of defense. For years, they have been blocking the investor's trucks with their bodies, and unfortunately, they have to fight with certain city services that are trying at all costs to clear the way for the private quarry of foreign investors.

The authorities are deaf and mute to their pleas.