The committee for commemorating the centenary of the genocide in Šahovići (today's Tomaševo) will propose to the Assembly of Montenegro to adopt a resolution condemning that crime.
The text of the resolution, which is supported by the President and Vice President of the Committee, President of the Islamic Community Rifat Fejzić and Academician Šerbo Rastoder, was offered to all parliamentary clubs for signature. In order for it to be formally part of the procedure, it should be signed by at least four MPs, it is written in the notes to the Resolution Proposal.
Rastoder told "Vijesta" that he expects all parliamentary groups in the Assembly to support the resolution.
"We think that this is not an issue of Bosniaks, but of civil and multinational Montenegro. So, if everyone is in principle in favor of that concept of the state, then we see no reason why they should not support that resolution, which, precisely with its spirit, character and messages, reflects that," Rastoder said.
On that occasion, he met with the President of the Assembly Andrija Mandić and, as he said, they had a fair conversation.
The Cabinet of the President of the Assembly did not respond to the questions sent by "Vijesti" on Friday - what Mandić thinks about the proposed resolution and whether it is acceptable to him.
In the draft resolution, the authors reminded that similar resolutions were adopted in the parliament, but in connection with events during war (Piva, Velika), while the crime in Šahovići took place in peacetime 100 years ago and was never prosecuted.
"We point out that the crime committed in Šahovići is unique both in terms of the time it took place (November 1924) and the motive, in the name of which it was committed, and that it was never legally prosecuted, regardless of the fact that it happened in peacetime conditions," it was stated in To the proposal.
As the reasons for passing the resolution, they state that a mass crime was committed against Muslim life in the Vraneška valley, and the reason was the ambush murder of Boško Bošković, the retired head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the time, in the town of Ceru, who was passing by with his cousin Milet, who was wounded on that occasion.
"After Boško Bošković, the person against whom interpellations were filed in the National Assembly for arrogant and illegal behavior, was killed, his body was brought to the church in Mojkovac. Although he was not a representative of the government at the time, nor was he on duty, without any evidence, during the funeral, a false assumption and news spread that Boško Bošković was killed by the Muslim committees Jusuf Mehonjić and Husein Bošković, although they had not been on that ground since 1923, but in Albania. , according to the authors of the draft resolution.
As they add, the mayor of Bjelopolje and other representatives of the authorities (Nikodim Cemović, Gojko Terić, Lazar Bogićević and others, along with Sekula Bošković) invited the gathered people after the funeral of Boško Bošković to "revenge", announcing that they have "free hands to sanctify Boško in the next 24 hour".
"Previously, the Muslim population was disarmed, so the armed 'avengers' were met by the bare-handed, unprotected population." The gendarmes who were supposed to protect the population (two each) went in front, tied and arrested, that is, according to witnesses, they went around the houses two by one, arrested and tied men who were eventually shot at the location of the 'mosque'," the resolution reads.
Previously, as it is stated, respectable householders and prominent people were arrested and held as hostages in the Bjelopolje principality.
"They immediately killed 28 hostages, while three 'ran off'. According to the available sources, the same fate was in store for the Muslims of Bjelopolje. The most prominent were imprisoned in the Zaimović warehouse. One of them, Huzeir aga Dervović, managed to escape (he was helped by a Serbian officer), then to reach the then Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Nikola Pašić, and "buy" the hostages, by selling his property, giving money and assumed the obligation that all the Muslims of Bijelo Polje will vote for the radicals in the next elections, in March 1925, which actually happened", write the authors of the resolution.
The "Avengers" killed everyone they found
The authors point out that the "avengers", about 2.000 of them, mostly from the surrounding area, killed the Muslim population in Šahovići and Pavino polje in turn. They state that in a length of 19 kilometers they "burned down all the Muslim houses, robbed and killed everyone they found".
"The number of those killed remains unknown for the reason that no investigation has been initiated and the number of those killed is quoted, depending on the source, from 100 to 1.200... The result of this crime was: the entire Muslim population from this area was killed, robbed and expelled. "Rare examples of rescue of individuals by Orthodox neighbors indicate the need to affirm the good in people," they stated.
The descendants of the expelled and victims of this crime live, as they add, in various places in Sandžak, and in the villages of Islamovac and Gornji Rahići near Brčko (BiH), 400 of them, as well as in other places in this neighboring country and in various places in Turkey.
"A large number of them generally have only one wish: that a commemorative memorial be erected in the area where their ancestors perished and that the 34 existing Muslim cemeteries in the Vraneška Valley be made accessible to them and given the opportunity to thank the locals who have preserved them to this day" , the authors point out.
They state that it is an indisputable fact that no one was held accountable for this crime, nor did the then authorities conduct any investigation.
“The crime has been 'silenced' by science and posterity. Milovan Đilas was the first to speak publicly about it in the edition of 'Besudna zemlje' (published in English in 1958). Probably because he was a 'dissident' for the communist government, and a 'communist' for others, this book will appear for the first time in a language understandable to local residents, only in 2000. "The fact that this crime was 'silent' for almost 100 years speaks volumes about the need to speak about it publicly," the authors of the resolution say.
No less, as they add, the descendants of the victims did not keep silent about this crime, until sometime in the 1990s, when this event was first publicly discussed.
"Convinced that the 'false motive' of the crime that was the basis for the alleged 'revenge', in itself, is sufficient reason to condemn this inhumane act, which is far from the tradition of generation from the Montenegrin area. "Although it was probably known at the time, but certainly later, that Boško Bošković was killed by the Bulatović brothers (Radoš and Drago), that was not a sufficient reason for anyone to publicly condemn," claim the authors of the resolution.
They add that the largest migration of Muslims after the Balkan wars and the expulsion of the Ottomans took place in 1914 (over 14.000 according to foreign sources) and that only those who believed in coexistence and who had no reason to fear "their past" remained, which makes it even more meaningless. act of the so-called revenge.
"In addition, on August 28, 1973, the surviving actors and witnesses of this crime testified about the same, General Danilo Jauković, who recorded their testimonies on a tape recorder... The remorse expressed by the participants in the crime at the time was based on the express claim that Boško Bošković did not kill Jusuf Mehonjić and that the Muslims were killed, healthy and for no apparent reason," they stated.
Justifying the crime as an act of revenge is unacceptable
The resolution proposed, among other things, that the Parliament of Montenegro evaluates that the hundred-year silence about the mass crime against innocent persons additionally obligates the condemnation of that and every similar crime and that it condemns any violence motivated by religious or national reasons.
"Justification of crime as an act of the so-called revenge is unacceptable for any legally regulated society and state. In particular, something like that is not suitable for Montenegro, which in its customary law nurtured the 'right to revenge' only against the murderer and his close relatives", it is stated.
It was proposed that the Parliament of Montenegro condemn every act of murder of an unarmed man and the crime committed in Šahovići as an unprecedented event in Montenegrin history, that the state provide the Committee for the centenary of the crime and numerous descendants of the victims with a suitable location for the construction of a memorial and that the facts related to the crime in Šahovići will be present in educational programs and the teaching process as "an unacceptable phenomenon in a civilized society".
"We ask that a special memorial be erected to those neighbors of the Orthodox faith, who can be proven to have saved at least one human life by their actions... By adopting this resolution, the Parliament of Montenegro emphasizes that today's residents of the Vraneška Valley cannot be blamed for a crime committed 100 years ago, nor the recognition of that crime can be the basis for any change in the existing ownership relations", it is stated.
Đilas: The robbery of 1918 was innocent game to this
The murder took place in Sandžak, i.e. on the other side of Tara - the ancient bloody border between two faiths. That is why it was not difficult for mourners, mourners and speakers to start a crowd on a revenge campaign against Muslims... It was most natural to think that Boško Bošković was killed by the famous Muslim outlaws Jusuf Mehonjić and Husein Bošković, Đilas wrote in the book "Besudna zemlja".
He stated that immediately after Bošković's funeral, the Montenegrins attacked the unarmed Muslim population.
"There has never been such a campaign, nor could anyone have thought that such a thing was accumulated in what is called - the people's soul. The looting of 1918 was innocent game to this... About 350 people were killed, many in a gruesome manner”.
After that, as he wrote, Muslim villages became deserted and Muslims began to move to Turkey en masse, selling their estates.
He reminded that Yugoslavia was a parliamentary country at the time, but the crime was covered up and if someone had conducted even the most superficial investigation, they would have easily found those who committed the crimes and their leaders.
Đilas wrote that Bošković was not killed by Muslims, but by Montenegrins, the leaders of Kolasin.
"My father found out about that later, from a trusted friend. The leaders envied Boška... There were also many accounts that had not been settled before... The leaders who organized the murder did not move a finger to prevent the slaughter of Muslims. They realized that Boško's murder was only the reason for it, secretly rejoicing that they could eliminate Boško and exterminate the Muslims with one blow".
BS: Crime deserves to be clearly defined by society
The Bosnian Party (BS) told "Vijesta" that their position on the necessity of an adequate attitude towards events from the common past of the citizens of Montenegro through establishing the truth on the basis of indisputable facts, as the only remedy for overcoming divisions and disagreements in society in Montenegro, is public known and they think that it is not necessary to clarify it.
"The crime in Šahovići, as one of the heaviest crimes in this area and specific for the fact that it was committed in peacetime conditions, certainly deserves to be clearly defined by this society, to be marked, but also to be given its place in collective learning and memory of all citizens of Montenegro, as an expression of civilized attitude towards this crime, such crimes in general, but also out of reverence for the victims and respect for their families and descendants", they said.
The BS announced that when the resolution on the genocide in Šahović comes to the agenda in the Parliament, they will take a position on it at the party's organs, appreciating, first of all, the interest of the Bosniak people who gave them the mandate to represent it politically in Montenegro. Burning, but also appreciating the interest of the Bosniak people in a wider context.
"The president and vice president of BS, Ervin Ibrahimović and Jasmin Ćorović, will represent the stated positions through their participation in the work of the Committee to mark the centenary of the genocide in Šahovići".
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