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Baking and cooking, needlework, folk dance, women’s choir, taking care of grandchildren – activities along these lines can come to mind if we are asked what we think a 70-year-old Serbian woman does in her free time. However, in Krivelj, Serbia, something completely different happened: several women raised their voices and went on a sit-down strike for many months.
It all started when the Chinese company Zijin Mining opened a mine next to their home, which they say turned their lives upside down. The walls of the houses are cracked from the explosions, and there are many pollutants in the soil and water. The villagers want to move to the same place, all 700 of them, but the Serbian government and the Chinese mining company are only making promises for now.
An employee looks out from the terrace of the dispatch center at a copper mine operated by a subsidiary of China’s Zijin Mining – Photo: Marko Djurica /
Fifteen women agreed to a photographer Marko Djurica from Belgrade to take their portrait. They modeled in places where they felt safe: on the hills above the village, in living rooms, classrooms and gardens – or even at the barricade.
Krivelj, located in the eastern part of Serbia, with less than a thousand inhabitants, used to be a lively village surrounded by green hills. In the past, a fair was organized every year, which even attracted people from neighboring settlements. But in the 1970s, the landscape changed: a mine was opened nearby, which grew bigger and bigger. At that time, the concentration of sulfur dioxide in the air was said to be so high that, according to locals, it burned holes in women’s nylon stockings.
Extraction continued even after the dissolution of Yugoslavia, and in 2018 He bought it with the support of Belgrade the mine is a subsidiary of China’s Zijin Mining. Zijin paid $350 million (approx. HUF 128.5 billion) to recapitalize the bankrupt RTB Bor company and promised to invest $1.26 billion in the site over the next six years. The company completely resurrected mining in the region, production quadrupled. At the beginning of 2024, a line of orange trucks snakes through the brown valley. The green hillsides are stripped bare, the landscape is disfigured by mining.
A destroyed house can be seen near the open-pit copper mine – Photo: Marko Djurica /
As the mine expanded, the quality of life of the local population deteriorated. The villagers complains, that the local roads were also put to the service of the mine, which makes safe traffic impossible. The intensity of the explosions required for extraction is said to be so strong that the repeated daily It has a magnitude of 2.6 on the Richter scale due to earthquakes, the walls of some houses were cracked.
“My wife is now sleeping in the kitchen and I’m sleeping in the other room because the ceiling in the bedroom is cracked and we’re afraid it will collapse on us during the night” – He told a local for Free Europe.
Many people, especially young families, preferred to move away. However, the rest of the village’s proud Orthodox population stood on its heels. The one here vlachok they have preserved their own language and customs for centuries, and if necessary, they want to move together and found a new village.
The Vlach community is also angry because the copper mine is seriously polluting the air and water supply in the area. Zijin’s subsidiary, Serbia Zijin Copper, has acknowledged the problems, but says they did not cause them, they merely “inherited” the problems from the local company when they took over operations in 2018.
A According to Free Europe In April 2021, the company was ordered to stop work at the copper mine after failing to comply with environmental regulations and failing to build a wastewater treatment plant. Zijin, on the other hand he saysthat it has invested more than $100 million to reduce its environmental impact, including more efficient recycling of wastewater.
78-year-old Vukosava Radivojević sits at a barricade in front of a “blockade” sign – Photo: Marko Djurica /
A part of the angry population, more than two dozen women, were not satisfied with all this and decided to take a radical step: a barricade was erected on January 29 on one of the bridges crossing the village, thus preventing trucks from getting through to the copper mine. According to the locals, the constant traffic is dangerous for the bridge, because of the load already on it there are also visible damages.
“One day I was standing in the center of the village and I saw that trucks were constantly crossing the small bridge. It swayed under their weight. I told my grandson that something must be done,” 78-year-old Vukosava Radivojević told .
Trucks work in the open-pit copper mine near the village of Krivelj – Photo: Marko Djurica /
The main goal of the elderly women is to convince the Chinese company to help them move their village away from the population, everything, from the constant noise, vibration and pollution. Zijin would like to buy the houses of the villagers one by one, but according to the locals, this would break up the community, because they would move out one by one.
“There is no life here. We all want to move together, otherwise, if we move separately, we will forever be strangers wherever we end up.”
said Marija Bufanović, one of the housewives who organized the protest.
Another problem is that the company doesn’t offer enough money for the plots anyway. “With the money they are offering for our houses, we wouldn’t be able to buy a flat,” said Debica Kostandinović, another protester. So do the protesters they demandedfor Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Mining Minister Dubravka Đedović Handanović to visit the village and see what life is like there.
Marija Bufanović (53) and Debica Kostandinović (58) sit at a roadblock in the Serbian village of Krivelj – Photo: Marko Djurica /
78-year-old Vukosava Radivojević makes her husband’s breakfast before dawn, then goes into the village to guard the barricade. The protesting women are guarding the roadblock day and night based on a regular schedule, so that the mine cannot tear it down.
“We are forced to block the road because we are poisoned, everything is polluted, we can’t even grow vegetables, even though we are villagers. We just want to live in safety, we deserve this right,” said Radivojević.
“We protect our village and our homes where we were born. I am very sorry for our beautiful village, I am not sure that I will survive the move” – He told Stana Jorgovanović, a 79-year-old housewife, told . It wasn’t just middle-aged or old women who joined the protest: there are also activists among young people.
“We want to show the Zijin company that we still exist. I’m hoping for a new village somewhere that won’t be affected by the mine,” said a local student, Teodora Tomić, in an interview.
People at a meeting on local ecological issues in a school gymnasium in Krivelj on March 30, 2024 – Photo: Marko Djurica /
The area around the barrier erected in January became a symbol of Krivelj’s defiance and eventually became the women’s second home. In winter, the inside of the small accommodation built by the barricade was heated by a wood-burning stove, and it also had a television. Neighbors brought snacks and coffee to the protesting women, but stray dogs were also happy to take up residence in the building, which had been converted into a stall.
Days after the women closed the main road through Kriveljen to larger trucks, representatives of the mining company they went to negotiate to the village. During the negotiations, the residents explained their demands and the deadlines they hoped for, and announced that they would not give up the fight until they were met.
However, in addition to this, they want to negotiate with the company in an official email, because according to them, Zijin has ignored the previous verbal agreements made with the management of the mine – for example no compensation was paid because of the collapsed houses.
22-year-old Teodora Tomić in Krivelj church – Photo: Marko Djurica /
Zijin on February 13 announcedthat he was forced to suspend production in the mine due to the blockade. Although residents consider the temporary work stoppage a success, the blockade continued because the ultimate goals were not achieved.
In the meantime, however, the mining company also found its calculations. According to local resident Dragan Cosić, Zijin sought alternative routes for its trucks during the blockade, and a few kilometers from the village he also built his own road by blocking the bed of a river. The locals told the Serbian authorities, who ordered the removal of the makeshift road.
“They blocked the riverbed so they could cross it. As long as I can’t build a 1×1 meter toilet in my garden without a permit, the Chinese can block an entire river.”
– He told Cosic. Zijin stated that it operates in compliance with the law in Serbia and that it is actively seeking dialogue with the organizers of the blockade, local authorities and the Serbian government to resolve the roadblock peacefully.
An employee stands at the copper mine – Photo: Marko Djurica /
By the way, part of the population blames not only the mine, but also the Serbian government for the situation. In the past twenty years, the government has repeatedly promised to relocate the villagers, but in the end, nothing ever happened.
In October, Mining and Energy Minister Dubravka Đedović Handanović said that a solution had been found. However, the villagers a Free Europe, they said, that many of them have not even seen the resettlement plan and no agreement has been reached. The Serbian Ministry of Mining and Energy did not respond to the portal’s inquiry.
Tamara Novaković raises her fist as she poses on the closed bridge – Photo: Marko Djurica /
In the meantime, the village is trying to find another place to move to. According to the Chinese company’s proposal, another area next to the Zijin mine would be suitable for this. “I was born here, my children were born here, they go to school here. Krivelj has to live on, we can only move with the following infrastructure, school, church…” 38-year-old Tamara Novaković told .
“We would like that new village to be called Krivelj as well. Of course, there will be no Krivelj river there, but we want to move the church, the library and the school there,” said Tomić.
Framed pictures of soldiers and relatives who returned from the First World War hang on the wall of the old house owned by the Tomić family – Photo: Marko Djurica /
Advertisements showing houses for sale adorn an obituary in Krivelj – Photo: Marko Djurica /
Photo: Marko Djurica /
“I hope for a quiet village in a peaceful environment” – He told 20-year-old Marija Jankucić, who works in the convenience store.
A destroyed house near the open pit copper mine – Photo: Marko Djurica /
57-year-old Slavica Lazarević in a classroom at the school in Krivelj – Photo: Marko Djurica /
“The safety of our children is at risk. I hope that all people will move together so that we can preserve our ethnicity. I hope there will be a new school where I can teach,” said 57-year-old Slavica Lazarević.
Children play among the traces of the mine – Photo: Marko Djurica /
The Zijin recently he stated, that it is “committed to figuring out relocation plans in a transparent and fair manner” and is in contact with all parties involved. A local official hoped to have the relocation done by the end of 2025.
In April, however, Zijin agreed to stop driving large trucks through the village, a sign that the women’s movement had succeeded, community leader Jasna Tomić said. Residents responded by temporarily lifting the blockade to allow the company to complete some work. But the fight for uniform relocation continues.
One of the protestors, Deana Jovanović, expects “that the heroines of the village will get what they are fighting for: the support of the government and the company Zijin, which can give them a dignified life.”
