In Serbian village, women fight to escape encroaching mine

Before dawn, 78-year-old Vukosava Radivojevic prepared breakfast for her husband and then walked to guard a barricade in her village in eastern Serbia to stop trucks from entering an open-pit copper mine that residents say is contaminating the land and water.

Radivojevic is among two dozen women who, since January, have taken shifts by day and night on a small bridge in Krivelj to protest against the mine, run by a subsidiary of China’s Zijin Mining, that dominates the surrounding countryside and encroaches on their homes.

The women are fighting to persuade the company to relocate their village away from what they describe as an incessant din, shaking and pollution.

Zijin has already relocated many of the villagers. But the majority of those who remain are Vlachs – Orthodox Christians who have preserved their own language and customs through centuries. They want to move as one.

“We are forced to block the road because we are poisoned, everything is polluted, we can’t grow vegetables any more,” Radivojevic said as she stood at the blockade.