Bulgarian doctor Valentin Yanev was stopped at the border and not allowed to enter Serbia, where he was supposed to participate in an environmental roundtable in Bosilegrad, with the participation of the chairman of the standing committee of the Bern Convention on the future of the Karamanitsa mine. According to the document he was given, the reason was a “negative assessment of the security risk”, related to Serbia's national security. Dr. Yanev has prepared a nearly 30-page report on the consequences of the mine's activities on the health of the population and the environment. According to him, the studies show serious contamination with heavy metals, and there are concerns that if mining resumes, the contamination could to have even more serious cross-border consequences for Bulgaria. What happened at the border… Dr. Vladimir Yanev, member of the Board of the Western Suburbs Scientific Institute, spoke to FACTI.
– Dr. Yanev, how did you accept the fact that you were not allowed to enter Serbia and participate in an environmental conference in Bosilegrad?
– After we were detained for nearly an hour at the border with Dimitar Kumanov from the “Balkanka“ association, he was released, and I was handed a document stating that I was prohibited from entering.
– On what grounds?
– On many grounds, many points were indicated. Point 8 in this content means that they present me as a person who is “high risk to the national security of the state“. As a content, you I surrender. And on this basis they sent me back.
– Do you really think that you pose a risk to the national security of Serbia?
– Now, if we look at it realistically, I, of course, do not pose any risk to the national security of Serbia. It was just that some temporary reason had to be given for me to be sent back. Things are logical, since they know about my and Dimitar Kumanov's previous activity regarding the ecology in Bosilegrad. We are affecting this region because it is related to mining. And they know that we are well acquainted with this problem.
– You were going to this conference to give a report on the mine “Karamanica“, which is related to pollution. In fact, this does not want to be heard in Serbia, if we have to be clear and specific?
– Yes, in Serbia I was not They let me go because they didn't want me to be there and participate in the transfer of data about the Karamanitsa mine, which is mainly related to the health of the people there. We have a lot of data regarding the harmful effects. Mr. Kumanov could have presented things much better together with the local ecologists who are there. The goal was simply not to participate in the discussion.
– So you are a security risk because in Serbia they don't want to hear what you have to tell them based on your report?
– Exactly. Moreover, things that are related not only to the Bulgarians in the Bosilegrad region and the natural environment, but also things that are related to the state of the natural environment, health and mortality of the population in Moravia towards the interior of Serbia. Kriva feja, Surdulica, Vranja and even further, since the other mine, which operates a little further inland in the Besna Kobila region, because the watershed passes along the ridge of Besna Kobila, naturally they dump their ore dumps and waste. Most of them are in the direction of Moravia, and a smaller part also along the course of the Dragovishtitsa River towards Bulgaria. So this is a problem that affects not only Bulgarians, but also other people - the Serbs on the other side.
– What does your 30-page report contain? Can you summarize it as concisely as possible?
– The report was actually translated into English. It has been published, it is in volume 4 of “The Fate of the Bulgarians in the Western Suburbs“ and in a collection published by the Scientific Institute “Western Suburbs“, volume 1. And everything is told there. The genesis is told there - what are the capitals, where do they come from, how is the company created, who are concessionaires of “Karamanitsa“, how they work.
– What pollution are we talking about specifically?
– Heavy metals have been studied in surface waters, sediments – copper, lead, zinc, water acidity, oxygen content. One river, the one that collects the waste from the “Karamanitsa“ mine, or under Viroli, as they call it, is the Karamanitsa River. This Karamanitsa River collects the waters that flow out from under the mine and flows down into the Dragovishtitsa River, which enters Bulgaria at the Oltomantsi border checkpoint. That is, they totally pollute the Dragovishtitsa River there and then it enters Bulgaria, in Kyustendil, with all these heavy metals. And from Kyustendil it flows into the Struma, and then it heads towards Greece.
– The idea at the moment is to “wake up“ the “Karamanitsa“ mine, as far as I understand?
– Exactly. Both European institutions, which Dimitar Kumanov shared about, and Serbian institutions, and Bulgarian ones, resisted the mine from continuing to operate some time ago. And as a result of this joint action and resistance, the Serbian authorities were forced to close the mine about 4 years ago. But now the fact that drilling activities are currently being carried out there, again in this area, clearly shows an intention for new mining.
– And who are the companies now that want to mine and “wake up“ the mine?
– Look now, I can tell you for sure that there is Russian capital there. For the “GROT“ mine I can't tell you. But the source I came to after a very careful and thorough study, collecting data, including from Serbian sources, is that behind the “Karamanica“ mine there are Russian capitals, masked behind many companies and offshore companies.
– What data on pollution and mortality in the area do you have?
– I want to say that the data from 2018 are terrifying in terms of the samples taken from the Karamanica River area. Both in terms of electrical conductivity, of undissolved substances, of copper. Also the data on heavy metals – copper, lead, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, zinc. These results are terrifying because they are many times above the norm.
– You are a doctor and you have analyzed the health status of the population in the area. What connection do you find between the mine's activities and the increased morbidity and mortality from oncological diseases?
– Ecologist Branko Mitov and I decided to request official data from the Health Center - Bosilegrad for a period of time. He made a request to the director about the mortality rate. And they were forced to answer him. I also helped him formulate the question, more precisely, especially as a doctor. And it turned out that in an official census that was carried out in Bosilegrad in 2011, we are talking about a period when the mine was operating at full capacity, the total population in Bosilegrad was 7,555 people, of which about 2,500 in Bosilegrad and about 5,000 people in the villages.
And for this period from 2009 to 2019, according to data on the deceased, the deaths were 1,153. This shows that the mortality rate in Bosilegrad is quite high, and as a percentage it is about 15. But taking into account the fact that during these 10 years there has been a trend of population decline, as people generally move or move to big cities, or simply go somewhere else, you see that this percentage is already going to 24. Are we talking about a quarter of the population dying within 10 years? This is scary. For a quarter of the population in Bosilegrad and the entire municipality to die in 10 years, this is not a normal thing.
– And how did you analyze the mortality rate?
– There are no other industries in the region that create harmful effects, since this is a semi-mountainous region in which agriculture is poorly developed, relying more on cattle breeding, fruit growing. There is nothing. And there is nothing, because officially Serbia does not invest and prevents Bulgarian investors from entering, but that is another topic. There is no livelihood there.
The only industry that develops in the region is mining. In these two mines. And if we take into account this pollution, because we are talking about carcinogens, you see what is happening.
– What do the subsequent studies that you have as data show?
– And then, as now, the mine management and the mayor of the city produced counter-results, made in some laboratory, according to which everything was perfect. The water is wonderful. Fish swim, it is drinkable, etc. And they said that our results were manipulated. The big blow came when, after these results of ours, people from Belgrade came from their water institute. We are talking about the Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy in Belgrade. And this team in August 2020 took samples from various water streams - Karamanicka River, Golema River, Omatica, Lisin Lake, etc. That is, they expanded the study and covered the waters that are under the mine “GROTE Mine“. And after a few months, these people came to Belgrade with multimedia and presented the final result, which showed these pollutions - the same harmful factors, plus iron, arsenic, etc.
– What was the final result of these studies?
– Fifth pollution category – the highest. And the people from the institute said that some lands simply cannot be rehabilitated. Thus the truth about the pollution came to light and attempts to expose our laboratories, to show them as incompetent or manipulative failed, since there was a complete coincidence of the results.
– Do you have data on drinking water pollution?
– I'll give you an example of the village of Gorno Tramino, which is located under the “Karamanitsa“ mine. It was documented there that the tap water contains 13 times more arsenic. It is known that arsenic is easily released during mining, penetrates much more easily and thus enters the houses of the village of Gorno Tramino through the water sources. People there simply drink water with arsenic.
– And is there a real danger that if mining is resumed in the “Karamanitsa“ mine, the pollution will increase and start to move more seriously towards Bulgarian territory?
– This is already happening, it is already happening. The Karamanitsa River, which collects ore residues and reagents from the Karamanitsa mine, flows into Dragovishtitsa right next to our border, at the Oltomantsi checkpoint. It pollutes Dragovishtitsa right before it enters Bulgaria. Which means that all of these things I listed enter Bulgaria. In addition, Dimitar Kumanov once again well mentioned that in some places the river drops, probably due to the peculiarities of the soil, perhaps limestone and relief, thus polluting the groundwater that emerges as springs for irrigation in Kyustendil, then reaches the Struma River and flows until it crosses into Greece.