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Veles, the city of the lead soldiers

The story is slowly unfolding... City of Veles (Macedonia) was formerly known as an industrial center. Now, 20+ years after the tormential transition it looks like a shell of the former glory. Among many (now closed) industries, the lead and zync smelting factory played major role in the city's modern life. It did employ only small number compared to the employees of other companies in the city, but it did pollute 1000% of the citizens, for 10 generations to come. Negative effects of the lead, cadmium and processing chemicals combined with the poor ecological standards, shady business and the enormously stupid decision to position heavy industry in the center of the city have taken their toll. But now the former ghost is coming back, and with revenge!

Although happily closed for almost 10 years, the zombie is re-appearing from its grave and showing its ugly face. A company unoficially linked with metals trading corporation has bought the factory from the banks and the state (which were the main share holders of the bakrupt company). Further more, a 8 year long legal battle "Veles vs. Macedonia" has ended with case closure (1) with no clear reasons why and how the decision was made.

The citizens of Veles are angry of this Fukushima/Chernobyl reappearance and are planning to fight back, starting with protests on the day of the city (9th of November, 10AM). It is time to take our future (or what is left of it, for the good  of our offsprings) and fight back, since honestly we are tired of "entities" making us leave our homes. So many left or died, there is no turning back - we must fight back and bring up our pride. We want green and prosperous city and we are going to fight for it. Hopefully the consensus which remains across all parties will remain and will be proven in action. Both the former and current mayors are supporting the movement lead by a set of local ecological NGO's (1).

EU is quite clear about the lead production health and environmental effects. For instance, Bulgaria had to close a factory earlier this year having in mind that it is a member state and has to follow strict standards unlike us.

A documentary about the alarming health and environmental impact of the factory follows, subtitled in english. The beast must go down, and now it is personal - it is either the factory or citizens of Veles.

Please share the facts and help us spread the word, Veles should be green not black!

(Some facts and links follow after the videos, I will try to live stream the protests, so keep visting)

Important links:

• Position on Lead production (European Union) http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/pdf/pp_pb.pdf
• Bulgaria closing Lead smelting facility due to EU health and air quality conditions http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-18/bulgarian-lead-smelter-ordered-to-close-because-of-pollution-1-.html
• Macedonian news aggregation portal Time.mk - articles on Veles and Lead factory (1) http://bit.ly/rEb9tZ
• Macedonian twitter community hashtags: #Veles, #Велес (Macedonian)
• Facebook groups: 1, 2, 3

Update 1 (30.10.11 12:00): Satellite photo of the industrial complex, zoom out and understand the obvious danger - the factory is within the city perimeters, 2km close from every home! Look for the large black hills in the photo - toxic production materials left in the open:

View Larger Map

UPDATE 2 (9.11.11): The protest was rescheduled for 17:00 impacting the size of the event. Report is available here.

 

(1) - All links with this remark use automatic translation, source: Macedonian.