Low Citizen Turnout at Protests in Front of Croatian Embassy

SARAJEVO, (Patria) – Only a few citizens gathered at the protests being held in front of the Croatian Embassy in Sarajevo due to the disposal of nuclear waste at Trgovska Gora, which will endanger about 250,000 inhabitants on the border of BiH and Croatia. They carried banners with messages such as 'No to nuclear waste at Trgovska Gora', '300,000 Bosnians and Herzegovinians directly affected by Croatian decision', 'Croatia, respect the lives of your neighbors'...

The organizers of the protest gathering emphasize that today's low citizen turnout is a testament to 'our lethargy and that Sarajevo has shown it is not interested in other parts of BiH'.

"It is not the rain that will be the disaster to strike our citizens if a nuclear waste landfill is built on the border with BiH. We all learned in elementary school what nuclear radiation means. This is proof of some lethargy. I personally invited the citizens of Sarajevo to come to the protest. Citizens from Bijeljina, Zenica, and other cities joined this protest, and the turnout from Sarajevans is devastating," said Maida Šabeta from the association 'Climate Save Bosnia'.

This is more of a political problem, and if our institutions do not react, why would Croatia?

The Eko akcija (Eco Action) associations supported today's gathering with a press release, but they believe that the European Union Delegation in our country should also be a target of the protest.

"The disposal of nuclear waste at Trgovska Gora, which will directly threaten the water supply of Novi Grad, is not only a matter of relations between Croatia and BiH but also of the European Union's relationship with our country. Environmental and vital natural resource protection regulations in the EU are very clear and strict, but this apparently does not apply to countries on the periphery of the Union, towards which it increasingly acts as a colonial power. After the Strategy for the Western Balkans, in which the environment is barely mentioned, such a colonial approach is repeated in the case of nuclear waste disposal, contrary to the Convention on Transboundary Impact on the Environment, to which the EU, as well as Slovenia, Croatia, and BiH, are signatories. This further complicates and endangers the lives of people in areas already devastated by the policy of draining young and professional staff pursued by some EU member states, while Croatia itself consciously exposes its areas populated by minority populations to harmful impacts," stated Eko akcija. 

They reminded how the European Union reacted to the construction of Block 7 of the Thermal Power Plant in Tuzla, under the pretext of environmental concerns.

"Since such a reaction was absent in the case of the Stanari Thermal Power Plant, for which capital came from the Union itself, as well as in this case of nuclear waste, it can be concluded that the EU is concerned only about its influence in the Balkans, which it clearly considers exclusively its colonial territory," stated Eko akcija.