Mile Filipović is a shepherd and farmer from Bjelasica Mountain, a nearby territory from the Sinjajevina pastures, which he usually visits with his livestock.

When he first realized that some soldiers where moving around the communities’ pastures, he was really shocked.  “They do not need to turn Sinjajevina into a military training ground, as they would expel the people from here, we live from this ground!”.

“Agriculture and shepherding are more important than a military training ground!”.

As other regional peasants, Filipović understands Sinjajevina’s value is not only for them but for the whole ecosystem. “Agriculture and shepherding are more important than a military training ground” he said, “they want to destroy everything!”.

But, among all the non-informed military movements, there is one which specially concerns Filipović: a fast-grow pine plantation delimiting the military camp.

In October 2019, soldiers planted 3,000 conifers to delimit the training camp and forbid shepherds to cross it. “They can't grow here!” the farmer said, “those pines are not an original tree species of this region and block our livestock from passing”.

“It was a show! Claims out Filipović. ”They (the government) all talk about the development of agriculture, but this kind of actions demonstrate that they are absolutely not concerned about that”.