Mustafić: There won't even be a reminder of the crimes

The lack of support for the initiative to erect a monument to Bosniak victims of the crime of deportation in Herceg Novi is a cheap political calculation by those who did not support it, said the Vice President of the Bosniak Party and the Parliament of Montenegro Suljo Mustafić.

The initiative to erect a monument to the victims of deportation in front of the Security Center in Herceg Novi, from where they were deported, did not receive support in the local parliament. Only representatives of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) voted for it, while councilors of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), Izbor, and New Serbian Democracy abstained.

During the voting on that initiative, most of the representatives of the Socialist People's Party (SNP) and the Democrats were absent.

"I am really surprised by the outcome of the vote on the initiative. I think that it was an act of civilization, a proposal to mark the beginning or the place of deportation in a manner worthy of civilization. This was not only in Herceg Novi, but all over Montenegro, but it started in Herceg Novi and the most people were arrested there. It would be an extremely dignified act, which would not benefit the victims much, but would be symbolically very significant. I thought that this initiative would receive the unanimous support of all councilors," said Mustafić.

He said that the lack of support for such an act can only be interpreted as cheap politicking.

"I cannot interpret it otherwise than as cheap politicking, a cheap political calculation by those who did not support that initiative. Or what I really don't want to believe, that someone didn't make a departure from the events of the nineties, that is, an ideological departure in the sense that they don't even want to make a sign that would in some way even symbolically remind them of a terrible crime," Mustafić concluded. . The initiative to place a memorial plaque in front of the MUP building in Herceg Novi, from where the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina were deported in May 1992, and later the largest number were killed, was initiated by several non-governmental organizations back in 2011.

DPS did not have "enough information"

"We didn't have enough information," explained the president of OO DPS, Slobodan Radović Krušo, for the abstention of that party's councilors when voting for Dragan Šimrak's (SDP) proposal to include in the agenda the consideration of the initiative to erect a memorial to the victims of the deportation of BiH citizens from Herceg Novi.

He said that the proposal should have been processed in more detail and submitted to the councilors.