ZAGREB, April 11, 2019 – A protest was held in Dvor near the Bosnian border on Wednesday against plans to build a site for the disposal of nuclear waste from the Krško nuclear power plant at the Trgovska Gora location.
The rally drew hundreds of locals, members of ecology associations and representatives of neighbouring municipalities and towns from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Dvor mayor Nikola Arbutina welcomed the citizens’ initiative against disposing nuclear waste at Čerkezovac, a former military barracks at Trgovska Gora, saying the municipality had done everything to stop nuclear waste from being disposed there.
He said the protesters should protest in Zagreb because decisions were made there and not in Dvor, whose authorities, he said, had no say in the matter.
“Only the state can decide where the nuclear waste will end up. Only by uniting the right and left banks of the Una river can we do something. If we carry on as we have until now, scoring political points on this problem, then we’ll achieve nothing,” Arbutina said, adding that today’s protest was in the service of elections for ethnic minority councils and European Parliament elections.
Mario Crnković, president of the Green Team association, said the nuclear waste disposal site was a common problem and interest of the Croatian and Bosnian communities along the Una river and that only by uniting could the people oppose the project. “We mustn’t trade with Trgovska Gora.”
The Una river, which the two border regions share, does not deserve to be polluted with hazardous waste, said Miroslav Drljača, head of the Bosnian municipality of Novi Grad.
Bosnian MP Jasmin Emerić said the nuclear waste would destroy the most beautiful European region.
Dušan Bjelajac, deputy head of the Croatian county of Sisak-Moslavina, also warned about the danger of the disposal site.
Petrinja mayor and Croatian MP Darinko Dumbović said he had spoken about this problem in the Croatian parliament a number of times, “yet many MPs wouldn’t listen… because they raised their hands for the Trgovska Gora location.” He added that he was referring to the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, the opposition Social Democrats, the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) “and other ethnic minorities.”
Dumbović called out SDSS president Milorad Pupovac, saying he had betrayed his people in the Banovina region because of the ruling coalition, of which the SDSS is part. He added that Arbutina was deluding his people.
After one hour, the protesters dispersed peacefully.
More news about the nuclear energy can be found in the Business section.
