Several demonstrations have already taken place in recent months against the mining giant’s project, but this time there was a “strong participation of local populations”, noted the Serbian NGO Archives of Public Gatherings on Monday.
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“Rio Tinto, go away!” Several thousand people chanted this slogan on Monday, July 29, in at least four cities in Serbia, to express their discontent with the resumption of the controversial exploitation of a lithium mine by the Australian group Rio Tinto, according to images from the news channel N1 Serbia. The demonstrators marched in the streets of Arandjelovac, Shabac, Kraljevo and Ljig against the decision of the Serbian government to give the green light to the mining project near Loznica (west).
On July 19, a week after Belgrade gave the green light to resume mining, Serbia and the European Union signed a partnership to ensure the supply of lithium, considered crucial in the ecological transition. “There is no antidote (to pollution), the only antidote is ourselves“, said Karolina Aleksandrovic, a chemistry professor, from Arandjelovac. “They occupy our institutions, our rivers, our forests… The authorities work for their own interests, never for the interests of the citizens”Nebojsa Kovandzic lamented in Kraljevo.
Several demonstrations had already taken place in the last two months against the project, notably in Belgrade, but this time it is a “strong participation of local populations”noted the Serbian NGO Archives of Public Gatherings. She raises “a very high level of mobilisation of local communities, which was not the case in previous protest movements in Serbia”she added.
