After we published an investigative story on the concrete pouring and the extent of devastation on Trebević, as well as the close ties between the local SNSD and SDS in the sale of land to private buyers, Dodik dissolved the party’s municipal committee in Istočni Stari Grad.
Just a few days after Valter released his story and film on March 11 about the concrete pouring and the extent of devastation on Trebević, Milorad Dodik, the president of the SNSD, dissolved the Municipal Committee of this party in Istočni Stari Grad.
At that time, Valter also published, among other documents and evidence, a decision from January 19, 2024, which proves that the members of the Municipal Assembly of Istočni Stari Grad voted to sell a total of 40 new parcels on Trebević, covering an area of 123,019 m/2 owned by the Municipality.
IRREVERSIBLE DESTRUCTION OF NATURE
We remind you that Trebević has become a large construction site, with illegal construction taking place on every part of it, while the questionable process of transferring ownership of state land to the Municipality of Istočni Stari Grad continues, along with further sales to unknown individuals. The result is ecocide, as all of this is accompanied by illegal deforestation.
After all this, firebreaks are being dug, sewage networks with buried pipes are being constructed, septic tanks are being excavated, plots are being fenced off, concrete walls are piling up, and cranes are being installed.
“The construction in Istočni Stari Grad on Trebević and other strategic parts of the Sarajevo-Romanija region is not a reflection of the will of the municipality’s citizens but represents an agreement between the united policies of the SNSD and SDS, which are opposed only in front of the masses. So far, not a single statement has been recorded from opposition politicians from RS speaking about the justification of construction on Trebević, Borija, Glog Hill, Crepoljsko, and other less significant places”, says Ljubo Tadić, a former SNSD councillor in the Municipal Council of Istočni Stari Grad, to Valter.
Tadić emphasizes that numerous fires have been set on Glog Hill in recent years, which served as a pretext for the alleged need for the construction of a “firebreak”, along which a sewage and water supply network was implemented.
“In one report regarding my earlier complaint about the construction of plots on the firebreak, the inspector, Mrs Ljilja Šešlija from the Department of Inspection Affairs of Istočno Sarajevo, replied to me that the firebreak was widened for easier access to fire vehicles. It is precisely on this widening that a larger building is currently being constructed, and there have been no further responses or actions from Mrs Šešlija and her supervisor, Ratko Đurović, for quite some time”, emphasises Tadić.
STILL NO ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
For the second time, the Inspection Department of the City of Istočno Sarajevo avoids answering Valter’s questions. We asked them about the current construction works along the firebreak on Glog Hill, whether this construction is legal, and who the owner of the construction land is.
Meanwhile, the process of transferring ownership in the cadastral operation on state land from the entity of Republika Srpska to the municipality of Istočni Stari Grad on Glog Hill, the cadastral municipality “Njemanica”, has intensified. It is unknown based on what documents the transfer was made and whether it was preceded by the consent of the Prosecutor’s Office and the Government of RS, and whether the local cadastral unit issued Decisions for registration in the Land Registry in Sarajevo.
What is known is that Milanka Ždrale, the head of the local cadastral unit in Pale, who was previously responsible for the cadastre of Istočni Stari Grad, allowed the transfer of ownership from state land to the municipality of Istočni Stari Grad on Glog Hill, totalling 850,000 m/2, twice before retiring, without the consent of the relevant institutions of RS and the Prosecutor’s Office.
These decisions were reversed by the appellate body. After this, Ždrale was replaced by a new person who did not allow the transfer of state property ownership to the municipality of Istočni Stari Grad without the consent of the relevant RS institutions.
The Mayor of Istočni Stari Grad, Bojo Gašanović, who is affiliated with the SDS and has multiple criminal complaints against him, personally asked Dodik for intervention.
“Milorad Dodik, at one of the gatherings of all municipal mayors within Istočno Sarajevo, organized at Jahorina in February 2023, promised Mayor Gašanović that he would receive an independent local cadastral unit in Istočni Stari Grad. Because of this, Dodik was awarded the highest municipal recognition of Istočni Stari Grad in August 2023”, says Tadić.
Shortly thereafter, in the village of Borije, all state land, located above the Ophođaš site, totaling 222,000 m/2, was transferred to the municipality of Istočni Stari Grad. Then from the Municipality to buyers from Sarajevo.
The RS Prosecutor’s Office has been reviewing for over a month whether the conditions for concluding such contracts between the municipality and investors have been met. This institution has not responded to our questions. As our sources have emphasized, as before, the decision of the Prosecutor’s Office will be dictated by politics.
As for the devastation of Trebević, after a brief lull in the 2020 election year, it has since continued and intensified, as evidenced by the photos we are publishing.
