cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/10908215

The citizens of Zaječar have been afraid for years because of the investigation and expansion of the Chinese mine at the location of Malka Golaj. However, the heavy machinery suddenly disappeared.

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Neither [the police] nor the environmental activists have ever managed to "make" the city authorities to see for themselves the extent of the damage caused by the Chinese company in the vicinity of their city, and not even in June of this year, when the Republic Forestry and Hunting Inspection ordered the company "Serbia ZiJin Mining" to immediately stop work in that location due to illegal forest cutting and initiated a complaint for economic offense. The inspection found a drastic violation of the law on forests and complete deforestation on an area of ​​more than 11 hectares.

When asked if the criminal complaint is the reason for the workers' departure from the site or something else, [activist] Uglješa Đuričković says that they can no longer tolerate media pressure. "But probably the reason is that the elections are going on, and it is said that they will not take any more actions until the elections."

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After Romania, Bulgaria also joined

She says that the Elaborate confirms that the new plan will potentially have a cross-border impact, and that the UN special report from 2025 already shows this. Stephanie Roth adds that they did not know about this problem until they were contacted by the Timočka Buna.

"When people unite, they cannot be defeated. By definition, a mine is theft so that others can profit, and Timok is not a sacrificial lamb for the profit of Zijin, it is much more, it is a people and an environment that share culture, language, customs and much more."

A day after the Romanian organizations, the Bulgarian organizations, 12 of them, also sent a similar letter to their ministry. Although the Danube forms a 15 km border with this country, they also request the status of a potentially affected party, since the Timok flows into the Danube above 3 of their municipalities. They require documentation in the Bulgarian language, participation in consultations, and independent expert assessments of transboundary and cumulative impacts.

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Everything depends on the resistance of organizations and citizens

From the very beginning, Snezana Šerbula, a professor from the technology department of the Department of Environmental Protection of the Technical Faculty in Bor, who teaches water technology in her department, has also been vocal. It has been pointed out for years that this kind of mining damages underground watercourses, healthy drinking water and mixes it with mining waste, tailings or the ore itself at greater depths.

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Snezana Šerbula says that according to her experience with the company Ziđin, everything depends on the resistance of non-governmental organizations and citizens. "If they judge that the resistance is small, they will just remain silent for a short period, then they will start executing their plans again. And if the resistance does not decrease as well as the media support, then there is hope that they will give up."

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Activists have long warned about the Chinese mining company is endangering communities in Serbia.

On 31st August 2018 ... he Chinese multinational Zijin Mining Group Co., Limited took a 63% controlling interest in the company as part of a $1.26 billion deal with the Serbian government. The name of the mine changed to ‘Serbia Zijin Bor Copper Mine’ and that year the mining operation produced a net income of around €760 million, with most of the profit coming from the conversion of debt into new shares. The exact details of the public tender and what was in the contract that was drawn up between the Government of Serbia and Zijin Mining are not publicly known. What is known is the record of Zijin around the world for grievous human rights abuses, exploitation, and environmental harm. The company faces accusations of forced labour of Uyghur, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz workers in China; forced labour of workers in Tibet; forced evictions of villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo to make way for cobalt mines; poisoning the Tingjiang River in China with toxic waste and threatening water supplies and fishing industries; and allegations of pouring toxic sludge into tunnels in Colombia where informal miners were working.

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