The Human Rights Action (HRA), the Montenegrin Committee of Lawyers for the Protection of Human Rights (CKP) and the Association "Štrpci - Against Oblivion" welcomed the Government's decision to provide one-time compensation for reparations for the families of civilian victims of the wars of the 1990s, who have been "ignored for the last three decades".
"According to the 'Information on the allocation of one-time financial assistance to families of victims of the deportation of refugees, tragic events in Štrpci and the bombings in Murin and Tuzi', published by the Government, amounts of 100 thousand euros have been allocated to 16 families of victims of the tragic events of the kidnapping of passengers from a train in Štrpci, the NATO bombings in Murin and Tuzi and the deportation of refugees from Herceg Novi. The families of the victims will be paid 50 thousand euros each this year, and another 2026 thousand euros in XNUMX. The benefits are related to the status of civilian victims of war, which are recognized by amendments to the Law on Veterans and Disability Protection," the statement recalls.
They say that this decision by the Government is of historic importance, that it has great significance for confronting the past and accepting the best standards of providing reparations for victims of serious human rights violations such as war crimes.
"It is not clear at this time why the government left out the families of civilian victims of the war who died in Kosovo and Bukovica. We will continue to advocate for their right to these financial compensations," they said.
They also said that they were not forgetting "the right to compensation for the innocent victims of the crimes in Kaluđerski laz".
"Their family members do not have Montenegrin citizenship, nor the right to social status in Montenegro. Due to shortcomings in the investigation, this crime was not recognized as a war crime, which is why all the families' claims for compensation were rejected as time-barred, but Montenegro also has a debt of honor towards these victims. We hope that the Government's commitment to respecting the rights of civilian victims of war will serve as an example in the region and beyond, for making similar decisions that would include all families of war crime victims," the statement reads.
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