AROUND 3000 SERB RETURNEES OPPOSE PLANNED MILITARY RANGE

GLAMOČ, APRIL 24 /SRNA/ – Around 3,000 Serb returnees have signed a petition against the opening of a military training ground on the Glamoč plateau, which they say would threaten the survival of people as well as plant and animal life, Mićo Radoja, president of the Glamočko Kolo Homeland Association, told SRNA.

"We have reliable information that the Ministry of Defense within the Council of Ministers intends to relocate the military training ground from near the village of Pribelja, below Mount Vitorog, where leftover mines, shells, and explosive devices were destroyed on two dunums of land, to a new area covering 102 square kilometers on the plateau, specifically in Škadim and Kujača, between Kupres and Glamoč," Radoja explained. He said the petition, bearing citizens' signatures, has been sent to the Government of Republika Srpska, the Ministry of Defense within the Council of Ministers and the Glamoč Municipal Council. Radoja added that a public hearing on the issue was held in Glamoč on Tuesday, April 21, during which councilors were urged to vote against the opening of a military training ground on the Glamoč plateau at a Municipal Council session expected to take place in May. He reminded that the petition was launched by the association in early March and supported by Serb returnees in Glamoč, displaced persons and people originally from the area. Radoja warned that, if the military training ground is relocated, even the small number of returnees of all nationalities in Glamoč would be forced to leave their ancestral homes. He noted that the Barbara Military Training Ground near Glamoč, where live-fire exercises were previously conducted, is no longer active. According to him, around 1,800 returnees, mostly Serbs, currently live in Glamoč.