Historical truth between witnesses and archives

Continuation of yesterday text ""The untold story of our past"

In the meantime, books[1], articles, films, and theater plays have appeared, especially in Kosovo, which have shaped a narrative that contains only the foundations for it, but not the needs of a critical and comprehensive scientific review. This fact is indicated by the fact that only the first work in our language, in the territory of our country on this topic was presented at the scientific symposium "Crimes against Bosniaks of Sandžak in the 20th Century", at the international scientific symposium held in Novi Pazar on June 29 and 30, and in Bijelo Polje on July 1, 2024. The papers from this conference were published in the two-volume Collection of Papers[2]. At that time, the famous Kosovo journalist and publicist, Mustafa Balje, who, after a serialized feuilleton, was published in "Disabled", in which surviving witnesses spoke about the Bar massacre, wrote and presented a paper[3]. The author published his first works on these topics in the journal "Alem" 2002.i "To such a one " 2005. These were the first published records of the memories of some of the surviving participants in this event. As such, these memories are necessarily one-dimensional, like all other similar ones, viewed from the victim's perspective, without the need for a broader view of the context and angle of observation that would lead the narrator out of a narrow nationalized and ideologized perspective. But in any case, valuable and more than necessary research.

Unfortunately, "on the other hand" There was no such research, nor published memories, especially from the participants, not only because of an elementary methodological assumption "Let the other side be heard", but also because of the need for a more complete understanding of the act of crime itself and the circumstances within which it was possible. Memories "observer" The facts of this act presented at the meeting (round table in 2006 in Bar, hall of the Cultural Center), although not published, can be reduced to two facts emphasized at the time: the first, it is an unambiguous crime that needs to be talked about, and the second, which expressed regret that what happened in Bar could be a coincidence that could have happened in any other place, on the way of transporting these people from Kosovo to Bar, and that in this sense the stigmatization of Bar and Baran is unfounded and untenable, and numerous examples of saving these "unfortunate people" by the local population were presented. All the more so since Bar carries the image of a tolerant multinational environment, along with Rožaje and Plav, the only municipality in which the reformists won in the nineties, or the only one that the vassals of Slobodan Milošević failed to conquer. That was a large and significant capital on the eve of the referendum, and this type of emphasis should be understood in that context.

On the other hand, in the construction of an expert narrative about this "the untold, forgotten, skipped or suppressed story", each new source was greeted with special interest. Hence, the discovery that the memory of one of the participants in this event was stored in the Historical Institute of Montenegro aroused curiosity, especially since it should be the first "recorded memory" the other side", if we ignore the peripheral mention of it by General Boško Đuričković and others.

It is a memoir, some 70 pages long, typed on a typewriter, of a partisan fighter, Vasa Markov Vujovića from the village of Čukojevići, near Rijeka Crnojevića. Thanks to the fact that descendants have entrusted this manuscript to the Historical Institute of Montenegro for safekeeping, and that, through the kindness of the director and colleague Dr. Radenko Šćekić, I have been given access to it, the possibility of comparative analysis with previous knowledge and the scientific ease of assessing the value of this manuscript suddenly arose. Judging by the text typed on a typewriter, the time of this record could be located somewhere in the sixties of the 20th century and certainly in the time when the author's memories are still fresh.

The author's narrative begins with his early childhood years, his primary school years, his first encounters with communist ideas, literature, activities related to participation in demonstrations in the 30s in Virpazar, Rijeka Crnojevića, Cetinje (twice), Gornji Ceklin, Belvedere (June 26, 1936), joining the army where he found himself caught up in the war on the Albanian front, leaving the army and coming home, preparations for the Uprising and participation in it, capture, internment, return from the camp through the exchange of prisoners, rejoining the partisans, falling into enemy hands again, trials, going to a camp in Bar, then to a camp in Italy, escaping from the camp, returning to Yugoslavia (Colforito - Perugia - Florence - Bologna - Venice - Trieste) - on foot to Nikšić, on a two-month journey, joining the partisans, participating in battles in Montenegro and later in Bosnia.

On this dramatic life path, with numerous details and sequences from this period of life, the path of fate brings Vas Markov Vujović to Bar at the time of the dramatic events (March 31, April 1-2, 1945) that are the subject of our attention. The narration of this begins somewhere on page 57 of the manuscript and, appreciating the importance of the statement, we are transcribing it in its entirety, with the warning that some of the words are either not sufficiently legible or have been omitted, which certainly obliges every future user to gain insight into the original manuscript.

Describing the journey of a radio operator in numerous positions in the partisan movement, he arrives in liberated Cetinje, from where partisan units (Lovćen Partisan Detachment) set out to liberate Danilovgrad, Spuž, and Podgorica. After the liberation of Podgorica, the account of the events in Bar begins...

"Our brigade was given the task of immediately moving towards Bar in order to occupy and secure the coast of the Montenegrin coast against any eventuality. The brigade was tired from the heavy daily fighting. From its position across Rijeka Crnojevića, to Virpazar, across Sutorman, through the tunnel[4] to Bar. I took the opportunity to take a break - to transport across Sić, in order to get to my house in Čukojevići. More than two years had passed since I had seen my house, and my birthplace, I was so eager. As soon as our units arrived, I continued my journey to Bar with them. We arrived in Bar, the brigade was assigned to secure the coast. From Bojana to Boka Kotorska, the entire coast of Kotor - Bojana towards Shkodra. The brigade headquarters was located at the Pier in Novi Bar.

I set up with the radio station in the house of a certain Savo Popović in Novi Bar on Pristan. Comrade Božo Radošević was with me, as a radio telegraph operator and codebreaker. He was a codebreaker and chief liaison officer at the brigade headquarters. After a few days, Kosovars[5] began to arrive in Bar from Shkodra, masses of those Bjelo Kapovićs[6], whom our units had surrounded after heavy fighting in the area of ​​Kosovo and Metohija and captured around 40.000 (?)[7]. These were Kosovars who were with the Germans, and who, when the Germans retreated, separated, did not want to retreat from their territory, they separated and fought a bitter battle with the partisans.

When the partisans surrounded them on a hill, about 40.000 Kosovars, and kept them in a blockade for several days, so that neither food nor anything else could arrive, nor did they have water from anywhere, and they were forced to surrender. That army was like that, a guide from a Serbian division, who fought with them, told me, how they had attacked their units several times before the blockade. The partisans would enter a village, they would welcome them nicely, and when they started to leave the houses and villages, from every house, from those little windows-loopholes, they would shoot from every side, confusing the partisans and there were cases when only a dozen soldiers from a partisan battalion would get out of the village alive. These Kosovars were very good marksmen, so that every shot from the house from the shelter was sure.

Since the Partisans captured them, what will they do with so many soldiers? To shoot them, somehow it doesn't sound politically nice, to imprison them, who will give them food when we didn't even have enough for the Partisans. Decide to transfer them via Prizren - Albania to Bar and from there to distribute them everywhere in our units. So that there are, if possible, as few of them together as possible, to be dispersed among the Partisan units, nowhere two in one department...

The author is a regular member of CANU, BANU and DANU.

To be continued tomorrow

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[1] See: Vladimir Dedijer, New Contributions to the Biography of Josip Broz Tito, Rijeka, Zagreb 1981; Tenth Montenegrin National Liberation Brigade, Titograd 1984; Boško Đuričković, Memories, Reflections, Reactions, Belgrade 1990; Elsie, R. Kosovo and the Bar Tragedy of March 1945. Südost-Forschungen, 71, 2012, 390-400; M. Madić, М., Јončić, Twenty-fifth Serbian Brigade, Belgrade 1989; Nikola Masonić, For Generations to Remember: The Municipality of Bar in the National Liberation War and the Revolution 1941-1945, Belgrade, 2005; Founding Congress of the Communist Party of Serbia, Belgrade 1972; Đuro Vujović, Montenegro in the National Liberation War 1941-1945, Podgorica, 1997; Živković A. Twenty-seventh Serbian National Defense Brigade, Belgrade 1991.

[2] See: Collection of papers Crimes against Bosniaks of Sandžak in the 20th century 1-2, IHDAS, Novi Pazar, Rožaje 2024.

[3] See more: Mustafa Balje, The Bar Massacre in the Memories of Participants and in Literature, Collection of Works, vol. 1, 99-117.

[4] This refers to the old tunnel in Sutorman through which the train from Bar to Virpazar once passed, the so-called Ćira.

[5] The term used by the author for recruits transported from Kosovo.

[6] They apparently wore the traditional Albanian white cap - the çulaf - on their heads.

[7] The figure is obviously arbitrary.