(29 Jul 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sabac, Serbia – 29 July 2024
1. Pan right of the protesters
2. Protesters waving Serbian flags
3. Close of Serbian flags
4. Pan right of protest
5. Wide of banner reading (Serbian): "Rio Tinto Go away from Drina (river)"
6. Mid of people at protest
7. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Milena (no last name given), local resident:
"I am here to offer support, for clear air, clean water, for our Serbia, and against lithium, of course."
8. Mid of man waving flag
9. Mid of man showing red card reading (Serbian) “Red card for Rio Tinto”
10. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Tanja Popovic, local resident:
"I am here because of my children, my grandchildren. I have two of them. We must have water, air and food. We are a farmers country.”
11. Wide of protest
12. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) No name given, local resident:
"(I am here) because of myself, life and future, but what is going to happen I don’t know.”
13. Close of Serbian flag waving
14. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Biljana Stepanovic, journalist:
”If we all join together and unite neither Rio Tinto nor any other company will come here by force to mine.”
15. Close of banner reading (Serbian) "Clean lithium – dirty lie”
16. Close of empty battery depicted on banner
17. Wide of people at the protest
18. Various people marching though town
STORYLINE:
Thousands of people rallied in several towns in Serbia on Monday to protest a lithium excavation project the Balkan country’s government recently signed with the European Union.
The protests were being held simultaneously in the western town of Sabac and the central towns of Kraljevo, Arandjelovac, Ljig and Barajevo.
They followed similar gatherings in other Serbian towns in the past weeks.
The deal reached earlier this month on “critical raw materials" could reduce Europe’s dependency on China and push Serbia, which has close ties to Russia and China, closer to the EU.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attended the summit in Belgrade.
The deal, however, has been fiercely criticized by environmentalists and opposition groups in Serbia who argue it would cause irreversible damage to the environment while bringing little benefit to its citizens.
The biggest lithium reserve in Serbia lies in a western valley that is rich in fertile land and water.
Multinational Rio Tinto company had started an exploration project in the area several years ago which sparked huge opposition, forcing its suspension.
Earlier this month, however, Serbia’s constitutional court overturned the government ‘s previous decision to cancel a $2.4 billion mining project launched by the British-Australian mining company in the Jadar valley, paving the way for its revival.
The Serbian government’s decision to cancel the excavation plans came after thousands of protesters in Belgrade and elsewhere in Serbia blocked major roads and bridges in 2021 to oppose Rio Tinto.
Those protests were the biggest challenge yet to the increasingly autocratic rule of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
Vucic has said that any excavation would not start before 2028 and that the government would seek firm environmental guarantees before allowing the digging.
Some government officials have hinted a referendum on the issue could also be held.
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