Macedonia: Veles Says “No” to Lead Poisoning, Government Remains Ambiguous · Global Voices
After the massive protest against restarting of the lead smelting factory in the city of Veles, the citizens feel cheated by the declarative support shown by the politicians from the ruling parties, and demand clear answers from PM <PERSON> on whether the poisoning will continue.
The protests announced in the previous Global Voices article took place on November 9, 2011. Estimates of the number of the protest participants range from 10,000 to over 15,000 [hr], a huge turnout for this community of less than 44,000 inhabitants.
<PERSON> and <PERSON> published Creative Commons-licensed photo galleries from the event:
Protest march through Veles streets. Photo by <PERSON> (CC-BY).
People gathering on Veles square. Photo by <PERSON> (CC-BY-NC-SA).
Twitter tags #Veles or #Велес are still in use, and the seasoned local blogger <PERSON> provided comprehensive coverage of the protest:
…the families, school children and elders joined forces. Being there I saw people from all backgrounds – the non-governmental sector, doctors, blue collar workers, politicians including former and current mayors and members of the parliement and local council, mothers and daughters, from all ranges of age, social and ethnic background. They protested in unison, NO RESTART! for the smelting factory.
I was never good at guessing numbers, but the group of NGO's called “Green coalition” have managed to gather more participants than any party on a political rally even when they want to boast with numbers carrying people from other cities to enrich the scenery. Some guesses were in the range of 10.000 participants.
The organization was quite good, the people were loud but very polite, the whole process finished without any recorded incident. 363
The protest was lead by an excavator, symbolic image of the vision of the citizens – to dig up the old shadow factory and plant the perimeter with trees in order to decontaminate the land from cancerogens and active chemicals that modify the DNA of the unborn children.
The message was clear and far-reaching – NO MORE POISONING! Now, the state should show its support for the locals not only by speeches and through columnists, but by clear actions. And the solution is simple – rejecting the application of the investor to restart the factory – which everyone is sure that must be done based on strict following of the environmental legislation. Even the investor has admitted that they will pollute in their environmental impact study submitted to the Ministry of environment of Republic of Macedonia (image of the table follows, and remember the fact – the author of this document is the investor itself):
Table on environmental impact from the study with added explanations in English.
After this night – it should be clear to all, whoever tries to do more harm to the citizens of Veles will be punished severely.
A short documentary about the protest [mk] is available on YouTube:
And while the area's politicians and religious leaders turned out in force for the photo-op, they expressed declarative and noncommittal support for the <PERSON>’ cause. However, not all protest supporters received media attention, and were not credited at the event.
<PERSON>, the executive director of the Foundation Open Society Institute, wrote [mk] on his Facebook profile:
Yes, members of GEM (Citizens for European Macedonia) were at the protest. And the <PERSON>’ foundation supported the NGOs that organized it by supplying funds for 2,000 vests. Just like it supported them in the long bygone year of 2003 with a USD 6,100 grant for the first analysis that proved presence of the toxic materials in the hair of 80 local children.
<PERSON>, one of the organizers, added a comment:
A reason for this is that road to the truth around the environmental exodus started with FOSM support at the point when the smelter was a taboo topic!
<PERSON> concluded:
And now some people want to use the protest to build their careers.
GEM activists in the crowd during the <PERSON> protest. Photo by <PERSON> (CC-BY-NC-SA).
Several Twitter users shared a screen capture of a statement [mk] by former Mayor, <PERSON>, published on his Facebook profile [mk]:
Citizens of Veles expressed their position against restarting of the smelting factory with dignity. But statements of the representatives of the Ministry of the Environment indicate that the appeal has not been taken seriously.
Self-censorship of the speakers at the protest and pointing fingers at <PERSON> only did not produce the expected results.
The goal is clear: Veles without a smelter. 363