Romanian sheep nibbles at US security
US official says sheep shelter close to fence ‘undermines minimum security requirements’
One of the most important strategic sites in Europe for the US military has come under threat from a rather unexpected enemy: a flock of sheep.
It is their random meanderings near the Deveselu base in southern Romania that has triggered an unusual power struggle between US commanders and a stubborn local sheep farmer.
Dumitru Bleja’s 250 or so sheep “grazed without problem” in the area for years before the Americans arrived at the end of 2013, says Alexandru Damian, mayor of Stoenesti, a community on the vast Danubian plain 40km north of the border with Bulgaria. “Sheep are not like people. They don’t respect the rules, they go into areas where security sensors are active, touching the fence and setting off alarm systems,” he said.
But this is unthinkable for the US military, which chose the site as one of its two anti-missile defence systems to help defend Nato members against the threat of short and medium-range ballistic missiles, particularly from the Middle East.
In 2014, the top US official at Deveselu informed Romania’s defence ministry that having a shelter for sheep some 10 metres from the fence “undermines the minimum security requirements and is incompatible” with the running of the base.
The complaint has spiralled into a more than three-year legal saga between the Romanian defence ministry and the farmer that has now reached the country’s highest court, which today will rule on one of the aspects of the case.
According to the mayor, Bleja had in 2007 bought nearly a hectare (2.5 acres) of land adjacent to the area later taken over by the base, and a year later, he built a shelter for his sheep — well before work began on the military site. But, the farmer never applied for planning permission to build, he says.