The protest ‘Walk for Lika, Walk for Croatia’ has concluded, organized at Ban Josip Jelačić Square in Zagreb due to a major scandal involving tens of thousands of tons of hazardous waste dumped in the area of Gospić. The organizer is the Civic Initiative ‘Gospić our home’, and at the protest which started at 12 PM (protesters began gathering at King Tomislav Square from 11 AM), several tens of thousands of citizens attended.
The organizers demand urgent and complete remediation of contaminated sites, determination of responsibility, and clear deadlines for the removal of waste that threatens the health of citizens and the ecosystem of Lika.
The president of the Civic Initiative ‘Gospić our home’ Vjekoslav Bušić accused the government of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković at the protest, stating that the government had remained silent like the last traitors for two and a half years when they learned what was in the Lika soil. At his words, the gathered crowd began chanting ‘treason, treason’.
– Shame on you. Who allowed the soil to be polluted for two and a half years?! The system must change from the roots. You who did this are ordinary thugs and traitors of your people, shame on you. The protest must not be an end; it must set a standard that should have been established 36 years ago. Let us return expertise to the forefront of all institutions and remove everyone who is there based on a political card – Bušić stated.
Citizens must know
He spoke twice. At the end of the protest, he stated that the protesters would not forget the Rakitovac landfill near Gospić, which must urgently be included in the waste management plan and sampled immediately. He justified this by stating that citizens must know what is there, which means that long-term monitoring of soil, water, and air is necessary.
He urged the authorities to call the workers who work at Rakitovac, who ‘were unloading this hazardous waste there for these criminals’, demanding that the state organize systematic health check-ups for them, as well as analyses of the condition of plants and animals.
– There is no surrender. We will not give up. There is no compromise regarding the introduction of the institute of collective protection into the Environmental Protection Act. We support our colleagues from Dalmatia, and this must be introduced. There are no negotiations on this, if we are part of Europe. We cannot invoke European values without this. Do not introduce a few black spots into the waste management plan every few years, but immediately determine what all the black spots are and create a remediation plan with binding deadlines – Bušić said, noting that the current legal landfills are actually semi-legal and also dangerous.
