SAVE SINJAJEVINA CAMPAIGN UPDATE: PQCB WRITES TO PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER OF NATIONAL DEFENCE TO DEMAND EMERGENCY ACTION

January 25, 2023

On January 25, Peace Quest Cape Breton (PQCB) wrote to Prime Minster Justin Trudeau, Minister of Defence Anita Anand, and Minister of the Environment Steven Guilbeault, requesting urgent interventions to stop Mount Sinjajevina in Montenegro – a site of great beauty and biodiversity, sacred to eight tribal communities – from a cruel fate: being turned into a polluted military playground by NATO.  

The letters follow our campaign statement, ‘Heights of Arrogance,’ issued earlier in January, which is being circulated by the World Beyond War network and the Save Sinjajevina campaign in Montenegro. PQCB has also raised the issue with  Canada’s Ambassador to Montenegro, and Montenegro’s Honorary Consul in Canada. 

The full text of our letter to the Prime Minister reads: 

“Dear Prime Minister, 

Of behalf of Peace Quest Cape Breton (PQCB) – a non-partisan citizens’ group and member of the International Peace Bureau and World Beyond War network – I am writing to urge you to take urgent action to save Sinjajevina Mountain in Montenegro, a site of great natural beauty and biodiversity, from being turned into a NATO military training ground as early as May this year, when large-scale exercises are planned.  

Sinjajevina Mountain, nestled in Montenegro’s supposedly protected Tara Canyon Biosphere Reserve, is home to eight rural tribal communities prepared to risk life, limb, and liberty to stop what they rightly perceive as an assault on their traditional way of life – and a site, for them, of sacred power, crucial to both their socio-economic and spiritual well-being. “The mountain gave us life,” in the words of Milan Sekulović, President of Save Sinjajevina, a campaign of peaceful civil disobedience overwhelmingly supported by all eight communities and beyond. These communities are demanding that they be granted stewardship of a place they know so well, love so much, and can be utterly trusted to defend.  

In July last year, even Montenegro’s Ministry of Ecology issued a statement recommending that the Mountain be accorded protected status. The Ministry of Defence, however, doubtless under strong outside pressure, is refusing to endorse the recommendation, and as make this appeal to you the clock is ticking down to ecological and cultural disaster. 

Prime Minister, we do not know if you have been briefed on this issue, or have discussed it with any of your fellow NATO leaders, or whether any Canadian Armed Forces intend to participate in the planned training and exercises. We respectfully suggest, however, that the leaders of all NATO states have a right and responsibility to intervene on behalf of these communities whose freedoms NATO is ostensibly pledged to protect, not attack, and so avoid a travesty of justice and an affront to values I am sure you and your Government hold dear. At a minimum, we urge you to propose a postponement of any scheduled military activities, allowing time for a thorough review of all available options and alternatives – a review that should include consultation with local representatives and groups.”