The adoption of the Resolution on Genocide in the system of Jasenovac, Dachau and Mauthausen camps will certainly damage the relations between Montenegro and Croatia for the wrong reasons on both sides.
This was assessed for "Vijesti" by a retired professor of the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, Žarko Puhovski, commenting on the consequences of the Montenegrin Assembly's decision to adopt the Resolution.
"I don't see what the real motive could be from Montenegro to do this, but I can see what the motive could be from Belgrade." It is something quickly formulated, so clumsily that, for example, they talk about April 22 as the day of the greatest crime in 1945, and that was the day when the crime stopped. That was the day the Jasenovac camp stopped working. They are talking about the fact that all the prisoners were killed, and 117 of them survived", said Puhovski.
He said that this shows that the proponents went into it completely unprepared, "because they simply had a homework assignment - an attempt to neutralize the effects of the Resolution from the United Nations on the genocide in Srebrenica".
Puhovski said that it was "missed" on the Croatian side that, in addition to what was said, which Croatia had the right to say: "What do you need", she did not say a single sentence:
"Yes, there was genocide in Jasenovac. That genocide was condemned by the modern Croatian state several times, and above all, in this way, the modern Croatian state is not considered the successor of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). We condemn it especially because these are crimes in the name of Croatia and we condemn it together with everyone else, but we also condemn your political game with the Resolution".
He pointed out that "unfortunately, Croatia did not say that", but it said and it should not have said - that Montenegro's progress towards the European Union will be hindered by this.
"It seems to me that it should not have been said," said Puhovski.
CONVICTIONS FROM CROATIA
The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia announced that Montenegro's decision to adopt the Resolution on Genocide in the Jasenovac camp system and the Dachau and Mauthausen camps cannot be considered benevolent and good-neighborly in relation to the Republic of Croatia and that it is not in accordance with the declared goal of Montenegro's membership in EU.
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"The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs regrets that Montenegro has decided to ignore the calls of the Republic of Croatia not to politicize the victims of Jasenovac and not take steps that could negatively affect our bilateral relations and Montenegro's European path."
The decision of the Montenegrin Parliament was also condemned yesterday by the Prime Minister of Croatia. Andrej Plenkovic, announcing that the adopted Resolution sends a deliberate policy of division within that country, and that it is about the instrumentalization of "another country in the region".
Plenković said at the Dubrovnik Forum yesterday that the Resolution "sends a deliberate, conscious policy of division within Montenegro", and "an even worse message regarding mutual respect and the desire for good neighborly relations".
He pointed out that the ruling majority in Podgorica passed the Resolution "without ever dealing with the subject", and that it was passed as a response to the UN Resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica, under the instrumentalization of "another state in the region".
On the Montenegrin side, there are conflicting comments about the adoption of the Resolution.
MILATOVIĆ: WE DO NOT TRADE POLITICALLY
President of Montenegro Jakov Milatovic is in conversation with a Croatian colleague Zoran Milanović said that "it is a mutual duty to reverently remember all the victims of the genocide in Jasenovac, and not to politically trade both the victims and the crime".
Milatović wrote on the X network that he spoke with Milanović after the Resolution was adopted.
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MP of PES Drazen Petrić replied that although the President of Montenegro is well informed that the adoption of the Resolution has nothing to do with the political trafficking of victims, but with the memory of the innocent victims, "unfortunately, this does not discourage him from making the adopted Resolution meaningless in agreement with the opposition".
"The resolution does not target any nation, nor does it have anything to do with today's Republic of Croatia, just as it has nothing to do with contemporary Austria or Germany; moreover, it refers to crimes that absolutely no one disputes," said Petrić.
President of the United Montenegro (UCG), Goran Danilović, announced yesterday that the UCG had eight amendments to the Proposal for a Resolution on Jasenovac, because they did not want Jasenovac to be singled out from the suffering of the Serbian people, i.e., not to mention other large and terrible killing fields where the Serbian people were exterminated by the Nazis - NDH .
"Unfortunately, we did not succeed because we did not get support for the amendments from colleagues from PES".
He said that, at the last moment, by renaming the resolution on the genocide in Jasenovac to the Resolution on the genocide in the Jasenovac, Mauthausen and Dachau camps, one of the advisors of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Filip Ivanovic, or the prime minister Milojko Spajić, apparently tried to "use the skill of rescuing spilled water" to avoid the "ruthful wrath of Croatian diplomacy" and politicians in power.
"A big mistake was made because there is no concession when you do historically justified things and defend the truth. The prime minister, the minister and the advisors must know that they showed insecurity and calculation which, as a rule, is always punished".
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President of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Ivan Vujović he said that the adoption of the Resolution will certainly have significant negative implications for the regional position and the European path of Montenegro, as evidenced by the sharp reactions from the Croatian side.
Vujović said that neither the president of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić nor the President of the Assembly Andrija Mandić they are not interested in the Serbian victims of horrible and terrible crimes, "just as they were never interested in the Serbs from BiH or Croatia whose lives they ruined with war and criminal policy".
"They are only interested in the most mundane instrumentalization of those victims for the most insidious political intentions of harming Montenegro with the ultimate goal of turning it into the 27th electoral unit and destroying the European road."
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President of Real Montenegro, Marko Milacic, announced that they welcome the adoption of the Resolution.
"The goodwill of the parliamentary majority towards the Serbian people has been expressed, but also, in the coming period, other systemic issues of importance for the Serbian people must be resolved, above all the issue of dual citizenship, the status of the Serbian language as official, as well as other important issues for the Serbian people, but also for the state of Montenegro".
41 members of the parliamentary majority voted for the adoption of the Resolution on Friday. He was opposed by a member of the ruling Albanian Alliance Ilir Chapuni, and the majority of deputies did not vote Miodrag Laković i Tonći Janović (PES) and representatives of the Albanian Forum Artan Chobi i Nikola Camaj.
During the voting, MPs from the opposition DPS, SD, HGI, BS and GP URA were not in the hall.
Brnabić: Vučić is not behind the Resolution
President of the Assembly of Serbia Ana Brnabic yesterday she said that the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, does not stand behind the Resolution.
She said that she believes that the adoption of the Resolution is a good thing.
"Vučić does not stand behind this Resolution. Anyone who followed the political scene in Montenegro could see that they proposed it themselves," Brnabić told TV Pink.
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Bonus video:
