From the "promotion" of Cetinje residents Nenada Neno Kaluđerović, suspected of serious crimes, at a rally held late last week in front of Biljarda, the only benefit can be "those who find it very easy to disqualify everything that comes from those who give speeches with such iconography, because it seems that the purpose of their actions is to support criminals."
This was told by a civic activist to "Vijesti". Stefan Djukic, answering the question of whether, and if so, whose, political benefit is it to display Kaluđerović's photographs at a gathering in the capital, and whether those who did so are not compromising the ideas they claim to be fighting for.
The rally under the slogan "Cetinje remembers, Montenegro remembers" was held on Sunday, September 7, to mark the fourth anniversary of the protests at Belvedere, organized in opposition to the enthronement of the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC). Joanikia at the Cetinje Monastery. The gathering was organized by the non-governmental organization (NGO) Center for Civil Rights.
During the gathering in front of Biljarda, a video beam placed on the podium showed, among others, a photo of Kaluđerović, for whom Interpol issued a “red” warrant in April on suspicion of committing several serious crimes. In addition, T-shirts with his image could be seen on some of the participants in the gathering. Kaluđerović was one of the leaders of the protest at Belvedere.
The Montenegrin police have been searching for this Cetinje resident since April 2023 on suspicion of being a member of a 33-member organized crime group. Radoja Zvicer (Kavački clan), responsible for the murder Damir Hodžić and his son-in-law Adis Spahić, who had no criminal record, in Stanjevića rupa in Spuž, but also kidnapping and murder Milo Radulović called Captain.
According to the Special State Prosecutor's Office, Kaluđerović was also involved in the murder Dalibor Đurić in September 2016
Kaluđerović filled newspaper columns reserved for dark stories for years. In 2013, the Court of Appeals finally acquitted him of charges of murder. Željko Jovanović in front of the cafe-bar "Ambasador" on August 13, 2006 in Cetinje.
Stefan Đukić told the editorial staff that he does not see how giving a speech under the image of a man suspected of murder, burning people, participation in a drug cartel... can benefit anyone.
"After all, if those who did this think that they can, without reservation, define their gathering from this angle in any other way than through the perspective of rehabilitating Kaluđerović and the like - I think they are wrong," he assessed.
The interlocutor stated that, simply, with such iconography, they made themselves "accomplices of the accused of the most serious criminal acts, and this in Montenegro, where there is a current discussion about how criminals from the past should not be rehabilitated."
"Suddenly we have a situation where they are trying to rehabilitate contemporaries who are suspected of having committed crimes. And it doesn't matter whose crimes are greater, it's a matter of principle. So, the only benefit, although it is very prosaic, is for those who find it very easy to disqualify everything that comes from those who give speeches with such iconography, because it seems that the purpose of their actions is to support criminals," said Đukić.
Despite the accusations of serious crimes, Kaluđerović has been glorified on several occasions. Among other things, when in May 2023, a group of citizens from Cetinje placed a banner on the roundabout at the entrance to the city as a form of rebellion against the “persecution of Kaluđerović” and the residents of the capital for participating in the protest at Belvedere. The banner read: “The first judgment is not what the enemies create - but the truth that the loyal ones speak. Today you are the target - tomorrow all of us! Forever with you are the loyal daughters and sons of the City of Heroes”.
Also, some intellectuals from Cetinje have repeatedly defended Kaluđerović in their own texts.
When asked by "Vijesti" why a photo of Kaluđerović was displayed at the rally, and whether they thought it compromised what they were supposedly fighting for, the president of the NGO Center for Civil Rights jointly responded. Svetlana Pajović Music and a political scientist Alek Barovic, who spoke at the gathering. They stated that, as far as they know, a gallery of over 200 photographs from Belvedere was shown on the video screen, each of which was broadcast for a few seconds.
Pajović Music and Barović state that "the presumption of innocence is a civilizational achievement that our state respects, or at least strives to respect."
"Unfortunately, a certain group, including your media outlet, implements the aforementioned civilizational achievement at its own discretion, at times when it suits it, depriving its ideological, political, and ethnic opponents of that right," they told the newspaper.
Addressing those present at the gathering, Pajović Music said that Belvedere belongs to everyone who was in Cetinje in those days in 2021, as well as to all the patriots who could not be there then, "but were with everyone with their hearts - and they remain so today."
"The purpose of this gathering, besides marking the anniversary of Belvedere, which is both a warning and an obligation for every Montenegrin patriot, is primarily a call for national unity," said Pajović Music.
Barović said at the gathering that they came to pay tribute to the Belvedere from four years ago, but also to the Belvedere from ninety years ago, "because the latter is just a continuation of the former."
"We also came to remind ourselves what it is like when unity and pure love for the country bring us together. What it is like when Montenegrins gather under their banner. Then no one can do anything to us, and all forces are small and insignificant compared to us. Let's gather again. Let's give wings to our Lovćen thought with our unity. Let's all gather together, around one idea and one goal, and our idea and our goal are only Montenegrins and Montenegro," Barović underlined.
The ruling New Serbian Democracy (NSD) announced that images of Kaluđerović, who is on Interpol's "red" wanted list, dominated Cetinje on Sunday. NSD spokesperson Mirko Miličić He said that a clear message was sent at the event, and that he believes that the overwhelming majority of Montenegrin citizens are "absolutely shocked" by Kaluđerović's photographs.
He stated in a statement that the prosecution claims that Kaluđerović is suspected of killing people in the most brutal ways and that it is obvious "that all of them, from the speaker to the last participant, wanted to send a clear message - that they are all actually Neno Kaluđerović."
Miličić added that Montenegro must accept that there is an "obvious problem" in Cetinje.
"And that is that Neno Kaluđerović is a hero for a significant number of citizens of the capital, and that it is not enough for them to protest and mark their own protests with an indescribable amount of hatred, when they tried to stop the enthronement of Metropolitan Joanikije of Montenegro and the Littoral, but they want to crown it with the glorification of a man who is on Interpol's 'red' wanted list...", concluded Miličić.
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