A group of citizens from Drvar, gathered around the initiative “Punish those responsible for waste in Drvar”, is not giving up on the request for the dismissal of the Minister of Environment of Canton 10 Hikmet Hodžić. Today, at the seat of the Government of Canton 10, they sent postcards to the addresses of the Prime Minister and Ministers, which read “Issuing a Decision without an on-site inspection is illegal.” This message refers to the decision on waste management that the cantonal minister Hikmet Hodžić issued to the company Krom reciklaža.
An informal group of Drvar citizens, who fought for 9 months to remove illegally disposed “Italian waste” from their city, eventually achieving their goal, continues to fight for the just sanction of all those responsible for this scandal and for the authorities to investigate potential corruption.
“Citizens gathered around the initiative “Punish those responsible for waste in Drvar” demand that the current Minister of Construction, Reconstruction, Physical Planning and Environmental Protection of Canton 10, Hikmet Hodžić bears responsibility and resigns or is dismissed.
We believe that the responsible person who issued the Decision on issuing a waste management permit by his negligent and irresponsible actions, violation of the law and failure to act on the basis of conscientious and careful assessment of all evidence when issuing an import permit, endangered the health of citizens of Drvar and cleanliness of the city, as well as air and soil quality in a wider area and to the extent that it can worsen people’s living conditions.
Although the waste was removed from Drvar and other municipalities in the Federation of BiH where it was illegally disposed due to constant civic activism, those responsible are still not sanctioned!
But our fight will not stop until those responsible are punished”, it is stated in the postcard sent to the authorities by the members of the informal group “Punish those responsible for waste in Drvar”.
The government of Canton 10 has not yet considered the responsibility of its minister, nor the demands of this informal group of citizens.
“I do not believe that Prime Minister Ivan Vukadin would have thought of that, because he might have to dismiss the entire government. When they left the HDZ and formed Pomak, the SDA decided to support them and be their partner in the government. So, if Hodžić continues to be supported by SDA, he will be at the head of the Ministry for a long time to come,” an unnamed source close to the Canton Government told Oslobođenje recently.
Activist from Drvar, Živana Sabljić, points out that this activity is aimed at the Government, which, if it adheres to morals and the law, has the obligation to remove the minister who violated the law. She also announces new activities of this group, which will continue to seek sanctions for those responsible.
“In the next few days, we will launch a new billboard campaign in Livno and inform the public about it. Also, the online petition for the removal of Minister Hodžić is still ongoing, and we invite everyone to support our fight for a normal state and responsible public administration with their signatures. The most important thing for us was to remove the waste and we succeeded. However, it would not be good for this state and society to push another affair under the carpet and forget, without sanctioning those responsible. I guess that is normal,” said Živana Sabljić.
We remind you that the company “Krom reciklaža” imported 414 tons of waste from Italy in June and July last year and disposed of it improperly, even though the waste was intended for recycling. However, citizens decided to stop that, blocking the highway and garbage trucks and preventing further disposal of garbage.
Only nine months later, at the expense of the citizens of the Federation of BiH, the waste was removed from abandoned factories and other locations in Drvar and four other local communities.
No one has been held accountable for the incident yet, and the owners of “Krom reciklaža” have even announced that they will sue the state for lost profits and that they will seek compensation of 1.2 million euros.
