Pavle Đurišić was no hero, but a commander who cold-bloodedly ordered – and carried out – one of the most monstrous crimes in the history of Montenegro and Sandžak, said Bosniak Party MP Kenana Strujić Harbi.
She was reacting to a statement by the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Joanikije, who called the Chetnik duke Pavle Đurišić a "great hero" of invincible character.
"Let's speak with facts! Let's not allow a lie told a hundred times to become the accepted truth. Let's remember and speak clearly - about the crimes and criminals, so that they do not happen again to future generations! Pavle Đurišić was no hero, but a commander who cold-bloodedly ordered - and carried out - one of the most monstrous crimes in the history of Montenegro and Sandžak. In early 1943, his units embarked on a planned campaign, known as the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim population of the Montenegrin part of Sandžak and Eastern Bosnia. According to his own report to Draža Mihailović, around 8.000 civilians were killed - without a fight, without resistance," the MP said.
She said that today's historical research indicates that this number is significantly higher.
"Just one piece of information - the lists of victims show that more than 50% of those killed in the Pljevlja district were children under the age of 14. They were killed in their mothers' arms, burned alive in their homes, slaughtered on their doorsteps - just because they were of the Islamic faith! This was not a military action. It was a bloody act of extermination, a textbook example of a crime against humanity! Information that evokes contempt and shame for such a person in every normal person, and unfortunately for some, even today."
Strujić Harbić pointed out that Đurišić was a war criminal, collaborator and traitor.
"His 'heroism' was reduced to the mass murder of women, children and the elderly, while he was defeated in every serious military conflict. His collaboration with the Italian and German occupiers, as well as with the Ustashas, represents the pinnacle of betrayal of his own people! Glorification of such a villain can only be accepted by those who have never read a single historical document, testimony or book. The ideology that tries to make role models and heroes out of such villains is poor, unscrupulous, immoral and doomed to failure," the statement reads.
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