Vukojevac

Vukojevac is a village in the region of Turopolje south of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. It is situated on the eastern slopes of the Vukomeričke gorice hills and about halfway between Zagreb and Sisak adjacent to the road that connected the ancient Roman towns of Poetovio and Siscia. The village is divided into Gornji Vukojevac (Upper Vukojevac) with 75 residents and Donji Vukojevac (Lower Vukojevac) with 468 residents (2001). It is part of the Lekenik municipality of the Sisak-Moslavina county.

Vukojevac is the center of a popular movement to preserve the cultural and ecological heritage of Turopolje which is being threatened by a proposed highway project to link the cities Zagreb and Sisak. The committee ("Odbor za promjenu trase autoceste") has thus far solicited signatures, from the majority of the local population in Turopolje, to argue that the proposed highway should not open a new corridor in this fragile socio-ecological system yet follow the existing railroad in order to connect the two cities. In 2003 and 2004 due to interference by well funded lobby groups in a shabby legal environment of the Republic of Croatia the population of Vukojevac experienced transgressions of their private property rights as guaranteed by the constitution. Despite this fundamental breach the Constitutional court of the Republic of Croatia rejected a lawsuit by the committee on technical grounds.

As of 2005 the committee started seeking professional assistance in order to bring the matter before the European Court of Human Rights.After unsuccessful litigation in Croatia in early 2006 a [http://autocesta.org/eu_tuzba.pdf lawsuit] was initiated at the European Court of Human Rights.

External links

* [http://autocesta.org/ Autocesta.org (Web site in Croatian).]
* [http://autocesta.org/mediji/index.html Croatian media coverage of the problematic highway proposal.]
* [http://autocesta.org/Turopolje/page1d.htm Turopolje (Article in German).]