IA, CGO, CIN and Media Center: Instead of openness to dialogue, the government threatens, incites tensions and provokes revolt among citizens

The Institute of Alternatives (IA), the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIN), the Media Center and the Center for Civic Education (CGO) in a joint statement express their concern regarding the past events.

"We are following with concern the latest events in Budva, which have their source in the ongoing and deepening divisions in Montenegrin society, accompanied by a sense of injustice, but also by the government's willingness to not choose the means, with widespread abuse of powers and institutions, to destroy the electoral will of the citizens," it states. in the announcement of IA, CGO, CIN and Media Center.

These NGOs added that "instead of being open to dialogue and compromise, the government threatens, incites tensions, provokes reactions and revolts from the citizens of this municipality, but also from wider stakeholders".

"The selective application of the law demonstrated by the government cannot be concealed by the constant repetition of theses about the threat of the state, destabilization and coups from the right and the left. There is an increasingly strong impression that it is the government that is most interested in producing chaos and instability, presenting itself as the sole guarantor of peace and stability , both in the country and in international circles," the announcement states.

IA, CGO, CIN and Media Center state that violent resistance cannot be a solution, and can be an impulse for further escalation of the problem.

"And material for the authorities to, playing the card of fear, present any further resistance to injustice as violence, savagery and primitivism. That's why we call on citizens to refrain from attacking the police and non-residents and to oppose injustices and abuses of laws and institutions in a dignified manner. Also , we call on members of the police to refrain from any abuse of authority, excessive use of force and to respect every citizen who exercises the right to freedom of assembly and expression, i.e. to conduct their activities exclusively within the framework of the law and best practices. We appreciate that it is necessary to open a serious dialogue with the authorities and the opposition, but also the authorities and citizens, with the appropriate participation of the European Union, the UK and the USA, in order to calm the existing tensions and we will strongly support all efforts to establish such a dialogue"; it is stated in the announcement.

The statement was signed by the president of the IA Board of Directors, Stevo Muk, the president of CIN, Milka Tadić-Mijović, the director of Media Centers, Goran Đurović, and the director of CGO, Daliborka Uljarević.