Today,
September 27, 2021, World BEYOND War announces as the
recipient of the War Abolisher of 2021 Award: Civic
Initiative Save Sinjajevina.
As already announced, the Lifetime
Organizational War Abolisher Award of 2021 will be
presented to Peace
Boat, and the David Hartsough Lifetime Individual
War Abolisher Award of 2021 will be presented to Mel
Duncan.
An online presentation and acceptance event, with
remarks from representatives of all three 2021 award
recipients will take place on October 6,
2021, at 5 a.m. Pacific Time, 8 a.m. Eastern
Time, 2 p.m. Central European Time, and 9 p.m. Japan
Standard Time. The event is open to the public and will
include presentations of three awards, a musical
performance by Ron
Korb, and three breakout rooms in which participants
can meet and talk with the award recipients.
Participation is free. Register
here for Zoom link.
World BEYOND War is a global
nonviolent movement, founded in 2014, to end war and
establish a just and sustainable peace. (See: https://worldbeyondwar.org
) In 2021 World BEYOND War is announcing its first-ever
annual War Abolisher Awards.
The purpose of the awards is to
honor and encourage support for those working to abolish
the institution of war itself. With the Nobel Peace
Prize and other nominally peace-focused institutions so
frequently honoring other good causes or, in fact,
wagers of war, World BEYOND War intends its award to go
to educators or activists intentionally and effectively
advancing the cause of war abolition, accomplishing
reductions in war-making, war preparations, or war
culture. Between June 1 and July 31, World BEYOND War
received hundreds of impressive nominations. The World
BEYOND War Board, with assistance from its Advisory
Board, made the selections.
The awardees are honored for their
body of work directly supporting one or more of the
three segments of World BEYOND War’s strategy for
reducing and eliminating war as outlined in the book “A
Global Security System, An Alternative to War.” They
are: Demilitarizing Security, Managing Conflict Without
Violence, and Building a Culture of Peace.
Civic Initiative Save Sinjajevina (Građanska
inicijativa Sačuvajmo Sinjajevinu in Serbian) is a
popular movement in Montenegro that has prevented the
implementation of a planned NATO military training
ground, blocking military expansion while protecting a
natural environment, a culture, and a way of
life. Save Sinjajevina remains vigilant to the
danger of ongoing efforts to impose a base on their
treasured land. (See https://sinjajevina.org)
Montenegro joined NATO in 2017 and the
rumors began in 2018 of plans to impose a military
(including artillery) training ground on the grasslands
of Sinjajevina Mountain, the biggest mountain pasture in
the Balkans and the second largest in Europe, a unique
landscape of immense natural and cultural value, part of
the Tara River Canyon Biosphere Reserve and surrounded
by two UNESCO World Heritage sites. It is used by more
than 250 families of farmers and nearly 2,000 people,
while many of its pastures are used and managed
communally by eight different Montenegrin tribes.
Public demonstrations against the militarization of
Sinjajevina gradually arose from 2018 onwards. In
September 2019, ignoring over 6,000 signatures of
Montenegrin citizens that should have compelled a debate
in the Montenegrin Parliament, the parliament announced
the creation of a military training ground without any
environmental, socio-economic, or health-impact
assessments, and NATO forces arrived to train. In
November 2019, an international scientific research team
presented its works to UNESCO, the European Parliament,
and the European Commission, explaining the bio-cultural
value of Sinjajevina. In December 2019 the Save
Sinjajevina association was officially launched. On
October 6, 2020, Save Sinjajevina launched a petition to
stop the creation of the military training ground. On
October 9, 2020, farmers demonstrated at the doors of
Parliament when they knew that the EU Commissioner for
Neighborhood and Enlargement was at that moment in the
country’s capital. Beginning October 19th, rumors
started to appear about a new military training on
Sinjajevina.
On October 10th, 2020, news broke and the rumors of a
new military training being planned were confirmed by
the Minister of the Defence. About 150 farmers and their
allies set up a protest camp in the highland pastures to
block soldiers’ access to the area. They formed
a human chain in the grasslands and used their bodies as
shields against the live ammunition of the planned
military exercise. For months they stood in the
way of the military moving from one side of the plateau
to another, in order to prevent the military from firing
and executing their drill. Whenever the military moved,
so did the resisters. When Covid hit and national
restrictions on gatherings were implemented, they took
turns in four-person groups set in strategic spots to
stop the guns from firing. When the high mountains
turned cold in November, they bundled up and held their
ground. They resisted for more than 50 days in freezing
conditions until the new Montenegrin Minister of
Defense, who was appointed on the 2nd of December,
announced that the training would be cancelled.
The Save Sinjajevina movement — including farmers,
NGOs, scientists, politicians, and ordinary citizens —
has continued to develop local democratic control over
the future of the mountains threatened by NATO, has
continued to engage in public education and lobbying of
elected officials, and has offered its insights through
numerous fora to those working in other parts of the
world to prevent the construction of, or to close
existing, military bases.
Opposing military bases is very
difficult, but absolutely crucial to abolishing war.
Bases destroy indigenous people’s and local communities’
ways of life and healthier ways to make a living.
Stopping the harm done by bases is central to the work
of World BEYOND War. The Civic Initiative Save
Sinjajevina is doing the educational and nonviolent
activist work that is most needed, and with stunning
success and influence. Save Sinjajevina is also making
necessary connections between peace, environmental
protection, and local community promotion, and between
peace and democratic self-governance. If war is ever
fully ended, it will be because of work like that being
done by the Civic Initiative Save Sinjajevina. We should
all offer them our support and solidarity.
The movement has launched a new global
petition at https://bit.ly/sinjajevina
ADD
YOUR NAME.
Taking part in the online event on October 6,
2021, will be these representatives of the Save
Sinjajevina Movement:
Milan Sekulovic, a Montenegrin
journalist and civic-environmental activist, and the
founder of the Save Sinjajevina movement;
Pablo Dominguez, an
eco-anthropologist who specialized on pastoral mountain
commons and how they work bio-ecologically and
socio-culturally.
Petar Glomazic, an aeronautical
engineer and aviation consultant, documentary film
maker, translator, alpinist, ecological and civic rights
activist, and a Steering Committee Member of Save
Sinjajevina.
Persida Jovanović is currently
pursuing a Master’s degree in political science and
international relations, and she spent most of her life
in Sinjajevina. She is now working together with local
communities and the Save Sinjajevina association to
preserve the traditional way of life and ecosystem of
the mountain.
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