COURT BANS SERBS NEAR MOSTAR FROM DEFENDING THEIR LAND

MOSTAR, JANUARY 30 /SRNA/ - In the village of Kuti, near Mostar, a real drama has been unfolding since early this morning, as residents are using their bodies to defend the land of their neighbors, Serb returnees, and are attempting to block the road to deminers hired by a foreign investor to clear the Zukulja hill site in their village, where a quarry is planned to be opened.

One team of deminers nevertheless managed to reach the future quarry site early this morning. Around twenty deminers are currently on the ground, ready to work, while awaiting a team from the BiH Mine Action Center /BHMAC/, whose access road has been blocked by local residents, SRNA's correspondent reports.

To make matters worse, half of the village of Kuti near Mostar has been served with a court order prohibiting them from preventing access to the Zukulja quarry via a public road that runs across land owned by Serb returnees in the village, specifically the Lozo family.

The Mostar Municipal Court, presided over by Judge Šemsa Jogunović, issued a ruling imposing an interim protective measure, ordering and prohibiting members of the Lozo and Omanović families from blocking access to the Zukulja quarry with their bodies or any obstacles, both to investors and to all individuals connected with the project. The interim measure also specifies the land parcels belonging to the Lozo family over which the access road runs.

The court issued this ruling following a lawsuit filed by the "Majdan-Kuti" quarry.

Local residents are desperate, embittered, and angry, saying that no one is coming to their aid. The investor had previously obtained all the necessary permits, as well as documentation stating that the area was mine-free and safe, yet deminers have now been engaged.

Siniša Lozo says that Serb returnees no longer know what to do or whom to turn to in the face of what they describe as obvious discrimination and persecution.

"They want to drive us out and seize our land. Let the whole world hear that in Mostar we have been given a court ban preventing us from coming onto our own land," Lozo said.