Albanian, Serbian residents win the Democracy Award after Lepenc River protection

“Come Kosovo” and KCSF's new programme for civil society support during Thursday have shared the price for “Democracy” 2019 for residents of the village of Stertina municipality of Croatia, as residents of this village, Albanian and Serbian, have been protecting their vital environment from building hydropower plants on the Lepenc River.

In this case it was said that all residents of this village from this initiative are examples of civic courage and community goodwill engagement, Koha Ditore explains.

Agron Rushiti, from the village of Downtown Beatty on behalf of fellow villagers from the two communities, received the award for “Democracy” for 2019.

He has said that residents of the two communities so far have been the only voice until the Lepenc River was degrading from the construction of hydropower plants.

This valley, before the construction of ugly hydropower plants, has been the source of water for drinking and irrigation, the source of food, the divinely donated natural beauty and the devoted preservation of our ancestors”, Rushiti said.

According to him, residents are not supported by the central and local level.

Today when we protest to protect the Leper River, we are told that we are ignorant and driven by foreign material and political interests. We are not politically motivated, nor for the narrow interests of the plant builders, but Leqei and the valley are on this side, of its people indiscriminately, nation and religion. We are determined to make the battle of defending this paradise with all the legal means of the Republic of Kosovo and the international norms”, Rushiti has said among others.