The protest rally was organised by the Croatian Helsinki Committee on Human Rights (HHO) and the civil initiative "When If Not Now". The protesters were wearing medical masks and carrying placards saying "Let us breathe" and "People of Slavonski Brod are awakened by the coughing of birds".

Representatives of the protesters were received by Environment Minister Mihael Zmajlovic, who said that he fully supported them and that his ministry and the government were dealing with the problem. He said he expected the problem to be solved through the modernisation of the oil refinery in Bosanski Brod, across the Sava river in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in two years' time.

"I expect support from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and there have been formal confirmations showing that the will exists to solve this problem," the minister said, noting that the refinery owner had begun the process of modernisation. He added that the modernisation required considerable funds and "we'll be very happy if it's done in two years." He said that the present situation was the result of problems accumulating for decades.

HHO president Ivan Zvonimir Cicak said after the meeting that the minister did not make any promises. "The people of Slavonski Brod will be poisoned by gases for another two years and we will see the consequences of that in hospitals and cemeteries ten years from now. Toxicologists say that the greatest danger is posed by benzene that deposits in the human system," he said.

Speaking of other sources of pollution affecting the people of Slavonski Brod, Cicak mentioned a motorway passing near the town's centre and a waste dump located near the town, adding that there were plans to build a gas-powered thermal plant in the town's vicinity and a coal-fired thermal plant in Doboj in neighbouring Bosnia. "That will be devastating for that part of Slavonia," he noted.

Cicak said that one way of solving the problem was to tell the Bosanski Brod refinery that oil with such a high sulphur content could not be transported via Croatian territory. He underscored that with Croatia's entry into the European Union next year this would become the EU's problem too.

Vesna Schmidt of the civil initiative said that the air pollution had been present for four years now and that its concentration had been so high in recent days that it reached Djakovo and Osijek, which are about 50 kilometres and 100 kilometres to the northeast of Slavonski Brod respectively.

"This is an environmental and not a political problem and it doesn't matter to us which party will solve it. What matters is that it is solved," Schmidt said.