[français / english.
SINTESI IN ITALIANO: In Montenegro, la NATO ha in programma di installare una base di addestramento militare sull'incantevole altopiano di Sinjajevina. L'altopiano, che si estende su una propaggine del massiccio del Durmitor, a nord-est di Nikšić, è un luogo pieno di fascino paesaggistico e ambientale (riserva di biosfera UNESCO) e con antiche tradizioni pastorali tramandate da 250 famiglie che oggi si oppongono alla NATO come Davide contro Golia. L'Italia è uno dei sei paesi NATO che hanno inviato propri rappresentanti alla inaugurazione di questo progetto nel settembre 2020, dunque è corresponsabile di questa barbarie. SALVIAMO LA NATURA E LE COMUNITÀ LOCALI DI SINJAJEVINA! FIRMIAMO LA PETIZIONE!]
 
[Update 18.11.2021: SEE ALSO THE WEBSITE http://sinjajevina.org/ ]
 
Save Montenegro's Sinjajevina!
 
1) Save Sinjajevina’s Nature and Local Communities from a Military Base! Sign the PETITION! (with VIDEO)
2) Seven actions to undertake to save Sinjajevina (Pablo Domínguez)
3) Sinja(je)vina, d’un territoire de vie à un territoire de destruction? (avec PHOTOS)
 
 
SYNOPSIS: In Montenegro, NATO is trying to install a military training ground on top of the traditional lands (and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve) of over 250 active pastoralist families of Sinjajevina that have no way to defend themselves from such a giant, if it is not through the broadest international help and support possible. Italy is one of the six countries who participated in the inauguration of the military ground in September 2020 and therefore directly responsible in supporting such a barbarity. SAVE SINJAJEVINA’S NATURE AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES! SIGN THE PETITION!
 
See also / À voir aussi:
UNE HISTOIRE DE RÉSILIENCE COMMUNAUTAIRE: Sinja(je)vina, d’un territoire de vie à un territoire de destruction?
A TALE OF COMMUNITY RESILIENCE Sinja(je)vina, From a Territory of Life to a Territory of Destruction?
 
 
=== 1 ===
 
SAVE SINJAJEVINA’S NATURE AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES! (WorldBeyondWar.org, 27 set 2021)
Save Sinjajevina’s Nature and Local Communities from a Military Base! Sign the petition: https://bit.ly/sinjajevina
 
 

Save Sinjajevina’s Nature and Local Communities!

Target: EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement; and the Ministry of the Defense of Montenegro

• Ensuring the removal of the military training ground in Sinjajevina in a legally binding manner.
• Creating a protected area in Sinjajevina co-designed and co-governed by local communities.

Sinjajevina is the Balkans’ biggest mountain grassland and a place of outstanding beauty. It is used by more than 250 families of farmers and nearly 2,000 people. Many of its pastures are governed communally by eight different Montenegrin tribes, and the Sinjajevina plateau is part of the Tara Canyon Biosphere Reserve at the same time as it is bordered by two UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Nature and local communities in danger
Now the environment and the livelihoods of those traditional communities are in imminent danger: the Montenegrin government, supported by important NATO allies, established a military training ground in the very heart of these community lands. The government also halted a planned regional park for the protection and promotion of nature and culture, severely threatening its unique ecosystems and local communities.

European Union must stand with Sinjajevina
Montenegro wants to be part of the European Union, and EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, is leading those conversations.

Saving Sinjajevina is a #MissionPossible
The local people have put their bodies in the way and prevented military exercises on their land -- an amazing victory! The movement was awarded the War Abolisher of 2021 Award. But they need our help to make their success permanent and end all efforts to build a NATO military base or training area in Montenegro. Please sign the petition!

 

To: EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement; and the Ministry of the Defense of Montenegro 
From: [Your Name]

Stand with the local communities of Sinjajevina and the ecosystems they preserve and: 
• Ensure the removal of the military training ground in Sinjajevina in a legally binding manner. 
• Create a protected area in Sinjajevina co-designed and co-governed by local communities

 
 
 
=== 2 ===
 
Seven actions to undertake to save Sinjajevina

 

1.- Please promote THE PETITION where you will be able to grasp in just a few lines and a 50 seconds video THE problem we are facing.

Please sign the petition if you support it, and circulate it around among as many people as possible in order to gather all the signatures possible from around the globe. 

 

2.- Please promote THE CROWDFUNDING that we have put up to support this very small association, but that has achieved soooo much up to now (e.g. WBW 2021 Award to Save Sinjajevina) and that needs all help possible. In the crowdfunding page you can see what they are in need of most urgently. But they probably need twice or thrice that amount to organize all they will be in need of for the next year, as 2022 is going to be the critical year in which the decision of putting the military ground off or not should be taken. And for the moment they have only received 15 small donations and not even 10% of their initial goal...

 

3.- Next 16th October 2021 they are going to celebrate on the Sinjajevina pasturelands the anniversary of the resistance camp that provided them the first victory and first halt of the military training after 51 days under snow and freezing conditions. Most probably they are going to live stream it, so please be attentive to a possible future email with a link to connect the 16th of october at around 2am Central European Time if you are interested in seeing the real place and people.

 

4.- Attached a summary in less than 5.000 words of all the publications that we have been able to identify in English and that is the most up to date document about the conflict. We still need to work on it, but it is useful if anybody wants to go more in depth.

Please note that the main problem is that almost nobody is writing about the case out of Montenegro and the nearby countries, while the pressure must be done mainly in the EU (Brussels) and the USA (Washington), and eventually the individual countries member of NATO and especially those that participated in the military exercises (USA, Italy, Austria, Slovenia and North Macedonia) that dropped over half tone of explosives in the area on 27/09/2020, while the shepherds were still around with their animals!!!! 

 

5.- Also please, do share our blog with as many people as possible.

 

6.- At the same time, please find attached the pdf exhibition about the case. Feel free to print it, showcase it, upload it on any webpage you wish or distribute it and share it with whomever you consider worthy and deserving enough to spread its more than decent message!  It has marvelous photos that might capture people's attention more effectively, as well as a beautiful and very simple but very didactic text that can help everybody understand in an easy language what is going on here.

 

7.- Finally, just to let you know, an international resistance camp is trying to be organized next Spring-Summer 2022 in Sinjajevina, maybe making it match with the beautiful tradition of Petrovdan (Saint Peter's day) that has just recently been recuperated by local communities and the Save Sinjajevina association to reclaim their identity and traditions linked to this territory of life and their customary rights over it. So even if the details of this international camp call will be provided as we get closer to the key dates next year, please bear in mind this idea and start spreading it around so we can have as many people as possible predisposed to participate and sharing it already for when the definitive call is launched next Spring!

 
[From a correspondence by Pablo Domínguez to Jean Toschi Marazzani Visconti]
 
 
=== 3 ===
 
 
 
UNE HISTOIRE DE RÉSILIENCE COMMUNAUTAIRE: 
Sinja(je)vina, d’un territoire de vie à un territoire de destruction?
 
SOIN
 
Sinja(je)vina est un immense plateau calcaire, d’une superficie de plus de 400 km2, qui avec Durmitor constituent un pâturage de montagne étendu sur plus de 1 000 km2 d’un seul tenant, le plus vaste des Balkans et l’un des plus grands d’Europe, qui fournit un lieu de vie et des ressources à plus de 250 familles de pasteurs transhumants et de petits agriculteurs.
Pendant des centaines d’années, les éleveurs de Sinja(je)vina ont gouverné, protégé et géré leurs pâturages, comme on protégerait sa propre famille. Organisés en regroupements de différents communs pastoraux, ils sont responsables de la conservation d’un paysage dont la valeur spécifique et la biodiversité unique ont été reconnues en tant que réserve de biosphère par l’UNESCO.
 
CONNEXION
 
Certains jours, à Sinja(je)vina, on a l’impression que personne n’y a jamais mis les pieds. Aucune empreinte, aucune trace de destruction humaine. Et pourtant des humains ont vécu et utilisé ces pâturages depuis des siècles, voire des millénaires. Seulement, nous ne sommes pas habitués à être témoin d’une telle « légèreté d’être » si respectueuse avec l’environnement, une présence qui nourrit plutôt que saccager.
Les falaises protègent des pratiques transmises de génération en génération. Les gens de Sinja(je)vina vivent au rythme des moutons qui broutent, du lait versé, des nuages qui passent. Par leurs rites, ils expriment leur reconnaissance pour toutes ces richesses dans leur vie. Sinja(je)vina est l’un de ces rares endroits où les habitants n’ont pas oublié qu’ils ne font qu’un avec le territoire où ils vivent.
 
ÉQUILIBRE
 
Mais il est toujours arrivé que quand on voit le paradis certains sont tentés de manger la pomme. En 2019, le gouvernement du Monténégro décida d’établir un site d’entraînement militaire sur une grande partie de Sinja(je)vina, avec le soutien d’alliés importants de l’OTAN, apparemment sans se soucier des dommages incommensurables causés à ces populations et écosystèmes uniques.
Les communautés locales ont décidé de ne pas rester assises en silence, et voir leur mode de vie millénaire être effacé de la surface du globe sur un simple décret de l’État. Ils ont combattu pacifiquement, avec diplomatie et activisme, réussissant, pour l’instant, à protéger la beauté de Sinja(je)vina des bombardements de l’artillerie. Une histoire pleine d’enseignements. Alors essayons de la lire à voix bien haute.
 
[Texte et composition par Pablo DOMÍNGUEZ, Peter GLOMAZIĆ, Milan SEKULOVIĆ, Aleksandra KAPETANOVIĆ et Jorge PELLICER. ]