In Serbian village, women fight to escape encroaching mine
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[April 18, 2024]
By Ivana Sekularac and Marko Djurica
KRIVELJ, Serbia (Reuters) - Before dawn, 78-year-old Vukosava
Radivojevic prepared breakfast for her husband then walked into her
village in eastern Serbia to guard a barricade stopping trucks entering
an open-pit copper mine that residents say is contaminating local land
and water.
Radivojevic is one of two dozen women who since January took shifts day
and night on a small bridge in Krivelj to protest against the mine, run
by a subsidiary of China's Zijin Mining, that dominates the surrounding
countryside and encroaches on their homes.
While their husbands work, the women are fighting to persuade the
company to relocate their village away from what they describe as the
incessant din, shaking and pollution.
Zijin has already relocated many of the villagers. But the majority of
those who remain are Vlachs - Orthodox Christians who have preserved
their own language and customs through centuries. They want to move as
one.
"We are forced to block the road, because we are poisoned, everything is
polluted, we can't grow vegetables anymore," Radivojevic said this month
as she stood at the blockade.
"We just want to be safe, we earned that right."
Zijin's subsidiary, Serbia Zijin Copper, acknowledged the problems,
which it said it inherited from a local company when it took over
operations in 2018.
According to a study commissioned by the company and published in
December, Krivelj's small river is polluted with heavy metals. Increased
quantities of lead, arsenic and cadmium were found in the soil.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Apr/18/images/ads/current/beasonag_sda_SFARM_2024.png)
"The site suffered from severe direct emissions of gases and wastewater,
resulting in highly polluted surroundings including air, rivers, and
soil," the company said in a statement to Reuters.
It said it has invested over $100 million to reduce the environmental
impact, including improving wastewater recycling.
Zijin stated it is "dedicated to formulating relocation plans with
transparency and fairness" and is in contact with all parties involved.
A local official said they hoped the move would be done by the end of
2025.
This week, Zijin agreed to stop driving large trucks through the
village, community leader Jasna Tomic said, in a sign the women have had
some success. Residents temporarily lifted the blockade to allow the
company to complete some work.
The fight for a satisfactory relocation continues.
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![](../images/041824PIX/news_y49.jpg)
A destroyed house is seen near an open-pit copper mine, run by a
subsidiary of China's Zijin Mining, near to the village of Krivelj,
Serbia, April 4, 2024. REUTERS/Marko Djurica
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Jul/22/images/ads/current/rohlfs_lda_072017.png)
TAKING A STAND
Krivelj used to be a lively village surrounded by green hills. Every
year it hosted a fair that attracted visitors from neighbouring
villages.
Then mining began in the 1970s, when Serbia was still part of
Yugoslavia. The concentration of sulphur dioxide in the air became
so high that it burned holes in women's nylon tights, locals said.
Standards have since improved, but production has quadrupled since
Zijin took over, meaning more trucks and more dust, the residents
said.
The landscape is scarred by piles of mine waste. Lines of orange
trucks snake up the brown valley. The walls of houses are cracked
from tremors caused by underground explosions, residents said.
The number of school children has dropped by two-thirds, retired
teacher Aleksa Radonjic said, as young families have moved away. The
fair stopped years ago.
The barricade, erected in January, became a symbol of Krivelj's
defiance. Over time it turned into a second home for the women: the
inside was heated by a wood stove and had a television. Neighbours
stopped by with snacks and coffee. Sometimes dogs kept them company.
"One day I was standing in the centre of the village, and I kept
seeing truck after truck driving through. The small bridge was
swinging under their weight," Radivojevic said.
"And then I told my granddaughter, something needs to be done."
Housewife Marija Bufanovic, 53, was among the first to build the
barricade.
"There is no life here," she said. "We want to move together."
Meanwhile, villagers discuss where they may end up. The company has
proposed an area near another Zijin mine, said community leader
Tomic.
"We want that new village to be called Krivelj as well. Of course
there will be no river there, but we want to move the church, the
library and the school."
(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Edward McAllister,
Alexandra Hudson)
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