The President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Andrija Mandić, laid a wreath in Kamniška Bistrica today, dedicated to the victims of the Zidani Most (Building Bridge), the Parliament of Montenegro announced.
The statement added that on that occasion, wreaths were also laid by the Minister of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property Slaven Radunović, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Montenegro Budimir Aleksić, as well as the Vice President of PAM and MP Dejan Đurović and MP Velimir Đoković.
The Assembly also said that after the memorial service, which was served by Metropolitan Joanikije of Montenegro and the Littoral, Metropolitan Metodije of Budimlje and Nikšić, Bishop and Administrator of the Metropolis of Zagreb and Ljubljana Kirilo, and Bishop Jovan of Pakrac and Slavonia, President Mandić addressed those present.
"Today we are gathered at the place where the Slovenian Alps and this beautiful country kept one of the most difficult and painful secrets of our people - an immense tragedy, but also a living memory of the cruel crime that occurred eighty years ago, immediately after the end of World War II. We have gathered not to revive any hatred, as ill-intentioned and ignorant people will inevitably say, but to pay tribute to the victims in prayer and silent suffering, in the name of truth and justice, to preserve their names and re-write them in the collective memory of our people. Their identity and evil fate can no longer be just an individual sad story of the families of the innocently murdered and the parental care of our holy Serbian Orthodox Church, but an obligation of the state of Montenegro, so that every suffering citizen of its country will have the right to a grave and their own name inscribed on that grave," Mandić emphasized.
He added that "in the spring of 1945, at the time when the war was over, more than ten thousand fighters of the Yugoslav Army in the homeland from Montenegro, Boka, Sandžak, Herzegovina and Eastern Bosnia, continued their journey, together with typhus patients, wounded people and thousands of family members, in the hope of connecting with the Western allies and avoiding the Stalinist terror that then accompanied the end of the fratricidal war and the communist revolution."
"Every revolution, which its initiators present as a necessary path in building a better and happier society, starting from the first one in France, through the Soviet and many others that followed in the 20th century, is fundamentally based on terror, crime and the cruel murder of political opponents. Our bishops, priests and historians will certainly speak better and more precisely about the path itself and the suffering of this army, clergy and people on the Evil Road from Podgorica to the Built Bridge, as our people called it. I am shivering even though it is a sunny day, I feel just as sad as I was recently in Donja Gradina, in the poplars by the Sava River, the largest execution site there in the Jasenovac concentration camp system. The coldness of these forests that cannot be warmed up even today, the strange rustling of leaves that we all hear, testify to the former presence of the unholy in this area. Only the power of that unholy force could have shed innocent blood on this land eighty years ago earth, and erases the word of salvation and forgiveness," said Mandić
He said that "this place of pain, this place of silence, has become a symbol of martyrdom and sin, the sin of sins, the sin of fratricide, the sin greater than any other sin."
"It is a wound of history, but even more a wound of conscience, and that the earth is soaked with the blood of the victims, but blessed by the prayers of those whose mouths no longer speak, but whose souls cry out. Killing someone who is helpless, who has surrendered and expects the mercy of brotherly love, killing him without trial and the right to defense - is the killing of justice, humanity, kindness and humanity. That wound is difficult to heal and hurts for centuries. They say that after hundreds of years, in a story, those two biblical brothers met somewhere on the land of their Lord. Brothers Cain and Abel - alone. Who killed whom, one asked. "It must have been me," said Cain, "you can see the scar on your face." Maybe, replied Abel, but that scar of yours, which is not visible, is much deeper and more painful. The guilt of the murderer and the wound of the innocently murdered remain together in the memory of the people and God," said Mandić.
He emphasized that forgetting any crime means committing a new crime and that forgetting the martyrs of evil means killing them again, adding that at one time, crimes were hidden and became forbidden to be remembered.
"Shadows walk behind us — quietly, silently, but questioningly: are there any more living who have not forgotten their own, their suffering and their end of suffering? Is there truth? Does it still live among people? There are, we are here, our elders were before us, and that is the answer to all those silent, silent and indelible questions. There are many of us who remember and who do not hate, who do not judge, who do not reject. We love everything that is ours, every wound, every pain, suffering, tear of an innocent, because we are of one. This place and other places of suffering are places where this honorable cross rises above the struggle for power, above ideologies, parties, divisions, and it calls us to pray for our brother, for man, for reconciliation. Let us remember so that it is not forgotten and evil never repeats itself in the history of our people," said the President of the Assembly.
Mandić said that "around 3.500 of our ancestors rest here next to them in just one of the mass graves."
"This valley and the nearby forest hide six mass graves, and priests, soldiers, wounded, men, women, children and the elderly are buried here together. They were sons and daughters of Montenegro, Boka, Herzegovina, Sandžak and eastern Bosnia - they were people. There is almost no Orthodox family in Montenegro today that does not have an ancestor buried here in the forests of Slovenia, according to some family line. Kamniška Bistrica is one of more than 580 registered mass graves in Slovenia, where, according to data from various commissions, historians and surviving participants, more than 100.000 people were executed after the end of World War II. Crimes committed in silence - but not in oblivion," said Mandić.
He stated that "the memory and prayer that remain to us are stronger than the horror."
"The first memorial service was held here in 2006, and in 2015 a chapel was built, and that year the names of over six thousand victims identified so far were read out. This is the best proof that the truth, no matter how suppressed, always finds its way. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, the Diocese of Budimlje-Niksic, the Metropolitanate of Zagreb-Ljubljana, our Slovenian hosts and everyone who contributed to this place not being a forgotten forest today, but a sacred space of memory and repentance. I would especially like to emphasize and highlight the role of our late Metropolitan Amfilohije, the late Dušan Niklanović and Čed Vukmanović, who were the first to bring us together as a Christian community to establish the truth regarding the suffering of our ancestors. I would also like to thank Marjan Šarec, today's Member of the European Parliament and permanent rapporteur for Montenegro, who, as the former first man of the Kamnik municipality, helped all of us to "Let's find the exact places of execution of people from Montenegro and build this small Orthodox chapel. As the President of the Parliament of Montenegro, I pledge that all competent state institutions will support further research and marking of these and numerous other execution sites where citizens from the territory of today's Montenegro were killed, and whose graves and names have been hidden for eighty years. The state of Montenegro will continue to strengthen cooperation with the Republic of Slovenia with the aim of marking the graves of our citizens in the territory of this friendly state," said Mandić.
He announced that today they are not seeking any revenge and that there are no longer any living order-givers or murderers, just as there are no longer any of those who suffered eighty years ago.
"The earth has covered the faces of both, and God's judgment is great. We only ask that no one suffer again - not because of their name, not because of their origin, not because of their religion, not because of the language they speak. We only want what all reasonable people want. Let us heal this grave historical wound of Montenegro, let us all acknowledge the crime that occurred. False oblivion is not a cure. The cure is - truth and repentance. The cure is - forgiveness. To sin is human, to forgive is divine. Let this sound of the murmur of the Bistrica, which murmurs today similarly to eighty years ago, remind us that life goes on, that our generation will also move to our ancestors, but that today, as well as the horrors that happened in this area, cannot be hidden and that our descendants have the right to know the truth. Every innocent victim is worthy of memory and high human respect. The truth must not be a burden to anyone, but the foundation of fraternal and human reconciliation and a certain future for our community and new, happier generations. Eternal glory and peace "May their sacrifice be the seed of our unity in justice, truth, love and forgiveness. May God grant Paradise to our great ancestors, and may this day serve as an honor and pride to all of you," said Mandić.
The statement says that earlier today, Mandić "participated in the Holy Hierarchical Liturgy in the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Ljubljana, along with other officials from Montenegro, as well as numerous believers."
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