PHOTO UGAR: Siniša Pašalić,; PHOTO, PRESS CONFERENCE: Vedran Ševčuk Alf
Darko Rundek and Igor Pavlica, who is part of his band Ekipa, visited the Ugar River yesterday to support the activists who, led by the Travnik Sports Fishing Club and the informal group of citizens “Raise our voices for our rivers”, are fighting for its protection.
With a special version of the song Ay Carmela, they supported this struggle and the locals for their efforts, and tonight with the rest of their team
“What I really appreciate is when people defend their river and that there are people for whom that river is almost a part of their body. Now that we’re in this mass extinction of species and when our species is endangered, it is important that we protect all those rivers, not only for the sake of local people, but for the sake of the whole planet!”, said Rundek.
Jelena Ivanić from the Center for Environment, whose NGO organised this visit, pointed out that the support of artists is extremely important for raising public awareness of this topic.
“We are grateful to Rundek and his team for taking the time to support local activists not only on the Ugar, but also on the Bjelava and Bistrica, where they were also a month ago. It is important that public figures talk about this struggle, the struggle for water, for nature and survival, because that is the only way we can enter homes, make people aware of the fact that they must take action, that they must protect their environment and preserve drinking water for the future generations!”
Due to tonight’s concert for rivers, a press conference was held earlier today in Banja Luka, where together spoke Zoran Kostić Cane (Partibrejkers), Darko Rundek, Jelena Ivanić (Center for Environment) and Ulrich Eichelmann in front of the RiverWatch organisation, which launched the Save the Blue Heart of Europe campaign in within which this concert is organised.
It is important to note that yesterday’s visit to Ugar, which preceded the concert, was also marked by the first major legal victory of activists from this river. Namely, by the verdict of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina dated November 2nd, 2022. In 2008, a violation of the right of the Travnik Sports Fishermen’s Club to a fair trial was established, all in connection with the case of the construction of the small hydroelectric power plant (MHP) Oštrac on the Ugar River.
Three months ago, the Association “Aarhus Center in BiH” prepared a Constitutional Appeal with the aim of speeding up the court process that was conducted before the Supreme Court of the Federation, regarding the cancellation of the construction permit for the Oštrac HPP on the Ugar River. Given that the legal proceedings before the Supreme Court were conducted for two years, the investor was given enough time to build the Oštrac HPP, which caused permanent damage to the environment of this area.
The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina determined that this is a case which, by its nature and importance, concerns the interests of the wider social community and the protection of the environment, and requires special urgency in handling. As a result of their verdict, we have the urgent action of the Supreme Court of the Federation, which annulled the first-instance verdict of the Cantonal Court in Novi Travnik and sent the case back for reconsideration.
“The cantonal court in Novi Travnik has already renewed the procedure for cancelling the construction permit and rejected the lawsuit again, this time claiming that the activist’s lawsuit was allegedly untimely. Just as we knew the first time that we could be a party to the proceedings, which was confirmed by the Supreme Court of FBiH, so this time we know that everything was submitted on time, and we will again, as early as next week, submit a request for an extraordinary review to the Supreme Court FBiH. This HPP should never have been built and we will prove it. Unfortunately, court processes in the Federation of BiH last up to three years, which is disastrous for environmental cases that cannot wait for a slow judiciary. Apart from the case of Ugar, the bleeding river, we witnessed a similar situation on the Doljanka river in Jablanica, where the hydroelectric power plant ‘’Zlate’’, owned by Mirza Teletović, operates without interruption even though the courts cancelled certain permits”, said Indir Melić, president of the Club of Sport Fishermen from Travnik.
