Several hundred citizens in the premises of the National Security Agency (ANB) read what neighbors, relatives, and even closest blood relatives had reported about their parents, who were labeled as "internal enemies" almost eight decades ago.
One of them, reading his father's file, determined that the service at the time received some of the information about his movements from the brother of the Goloto prisoner.
This was told to "Vijesti" by the grandson of a Goloto prisoner, and the son of a man who reviewed "a meter of documents" and realized that files do not die with those to whom they belong.
"Almost 80 years after the Informbiro Resolution, documentation about people who went through Goli Otok and other camps from that period still exists in the institutional records of Montenegro and, despite the fact that access to it is strictly limited, it continues to cause conflict among people, including their closest relatives. The fact is that some spoke consciously and some unconsciously, or did not even know that what they said ended up in the secret service files, but it is still available and it is not clear to me why someone keeps these documents for decades after the death of those who went through the ordeal of Goli Otok and other camps," he said, testifying about the experience of his father who, using the right from the 2001 decree, gained insight into his father's secret file, decades after his death.
In these documents, which are over 80 years old, he found information that, according to the interviewee, opened up a new trauma in the family.
"These are not just papers. These are wounds that are passed down through generations," says the interviewee.
Secret files of Goli Otok
Almost eight decades after the conflict between the Yugoslav and Soviet leaderships and the mass arrests of designated supporters of the Informbiro Resolution, documentation on Goli Otok and other post-war camps remains largely closed to the public. Although these events date from the period 1948–1956, the National Security Agency (ANB) of Montenegro confirms that its documentation fund still contains files from the former security services - classified as "SECRET".
From the ANB, headed by Ivica Janović, explained to "Vijesti" that what the services collected could only be read by relatives in the first line of succession, but also that some of the documentation was handed over to the State Archives of Montenegro.
"In accordance with your questions regarding certain documentation held by the National Security Agency (ANB), we would like to inform you that the ANB documentation fund contains, among other things, files from the State Security Administration (UDB) and the State Security Service (SDB) relating to the issue of 'internal enemy', or 'internal extremism' (including files from the period of the Informbiro Resolution). Considering the importance of the documents contained in the documentation fund of the former security services, this documentation has been assigned the level of secrecy of 'SECRET', in accordance with the Law, and therefore access to this data is limited," the National Security Agency said.
They also explained that citizens acquired the right to access their own files or the files of their relatives in the first degree of inheritance after the adoption of the Regulation on the Access to Files Maintained on Citizens of the Republic of Montenegro in the State Security Service (Official Gazette of the Republic of Montenegro, No. 45 of 21 September 2001), which was valid for one year from the date of its adoption, and the Instruction on the Method and Procedure for Access to Files Maintained on Citizens of the Republic of Montenegro in the State Security Service, which removed the confidentiality label "STATE SECRET" in relation to the persons to whom the aforementioned files relate, as well as their relatives in the first degree.
"During the one-year period of application of the Regulation, several hundred requests for access to files were submitted to the State Security Service, and citizens exercised their right in cases where the existence of files was established. Even after the expiration of the Regulation's validity period (September 2002), citizens' requests for access to personal or third-party files were acted upon in accordance with the prescribed procedure, which is still the practice," the ANB added.
The Agency announced that part of the documentation created in the work of the Department for the Protection of Peoples (OZNA) during 2004 and 2008 was submitted to the State Archives of Montenegro.
"A portion of the documentation created in the work of the Department for the Protection of Peoples (OZN) by the SDB/ANB, during 2004 and 2008, was handed over to the State Archives of Montenegro, on which occasion, appreciating the social, scientific-historical and functional significance of this material, no special conditions or restrictions were foreseen regarding its use. In this regard, the Agency continuously reviews the data contained in the documentation fund of the former security services, appreciating the significance of this documentation for the security and interests of Montenegro, so that, upon the cessation of the aforementioned circumstances and the acquisition of legal conditions, it could be handed over to the competent authority for further preservation and use for scientific, historical or other purposes," Janović's office responded to "Vijesti" from Janović's office.
Historical framework of repression
After the conflict between the Yugoslav and Soviet leaderships in 1948 and the adoption of the Informburo Resolution, massive political repression followed within the Communist Party and the state apparatus, while Moscow amassed troops on the Yugoslav borders...
According to data provided in available sources and archival surveys, out of a total of 468.175 members of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and 51.612 candidates for membership, around 55.000 communists supported the Informburo Resolution. Among them were 2.616 people from the state's leading bodies and 4.183 members of the Yugoslav People's Army.
The central detention center was the camp complex on Goli Otok. According to official data, 16.101 people were imprisoned on Goli Otok, accused of supporting the Informburo Resolution and Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, while 413 prisoners lost their lives.
The structure of prisoners by republic shows that the largest number of prisoners came from Serbia (about 44 percent) and Montenegro (about 21,5 percent), followed by Croatia (about 16 percent) and Macedonia (about five percent), with smaller numbers of Slovenians and Albanians. In relation to the population, Montenegro had the proportionally largest number of prisoners.
After 1956, Goli Otok changed its purpose and was used as a prison for criminal convicts, including rapists, murderers, and serious juvenile delinquents. The camp was officially closed in 1988.
Documents live for decades
The Goli Otok prisoners were people who were imprisoned and interned by Yugoslav authorities, mainly between 1949 and the mid-1950s, in the Goli Otok camp and its subsidiary camps, such as Sveti Grgur, for political reasons.
These are individuals who were labeled by the authorities at the time as real or alleged supporters of the Informburo Resolution, the Soviet Union and Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, but also as politically unsuitable after the conflict between Josip Broz Tito and the Soviet leadership in 1948.
Many were arrested without trial, based on administrative decisions and assessments by security services.
Goli Otok was conceived as a "re-education" camp, but in practice it functioned as a repressive penal system in which prisoners were exposed to hard physical labor, violence, humiliation, and psychological abuse, including a system of forced mutual punishment.
It is estimated that tens of thousands of people from all over the former Yugoslavia, including a significant number of citizens of Montenegro, passed through Goli Otok and related camps. Many remained under surveillance by security services even after leaving the camps, with files following them for decades.
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