In the past five years, 23 Montenegrin citizens went to the battlefields in Syria and Iraq, while eight Montenegrin citizens are fighting in Ukraine, according to a study by the Council for Regional Cooperation (RCC).
The study states that from 2012 to today, 18 men, five women, and three children left Montenegro for Syria and Iraq, while one child was born on the territory of the so-called Islamic State.
The study, which was presented at the conference of the Council for Regional Cooperation in Slovenia, showed that six people died in Syria and Iraq since 2012, while nine returned to Montenegro. Only one of those nine persons was prosecuted by the judicial authorities, and in question is Hamid Beharović from Ulcinj, who is currently on trial for the criminal offense of participation in foreign armed formations, for which a prison sentence of up to five years has been prescribed.
According to this study, titled "The Waiting Game: Assessing and Responding to the Threat of the Return of Foreign Fighters to the Western Balkans," there are currently three men, four women and two children from Montenegro in the territory controlled by ISIL.
The study says that a total of 2012 fighters from the European Union (EU) have gone to the battlefields in Syria and Iraq since 5.000, of which about 1.000 are from the Western Balkans.
About 300 fighters returned to the Western Balkans, and 200 of them died on the battlefield, but it is added that in 2016, the process of people from the Western Balkans going to the battlefield was almost completely stopped.
The document states that a Montenegrin citizen is imprisoned in Turkey. The authors of the study state, referring to sources from the security circles in Montenegro, that nine Montenegrin citizens are currently fighting in Ukraine on the side of pro-Russian separatists, that one fighter has returned from Ukraine and that court proceedings are being conducted against him.
"Unlike returnees from ISIL territory, who face terrorism-related charges on top of being accused of fighting on a foreign battlefield, a returnee from Ukraine is only convicted of participating in a foreign battlefield. In addition to the difference in the prosecution of ISIL returnees and pro-Russian fighters, sources from security circles in Montenegro say that the fighters who go to Ukraine are seen as mercenaries who are primarily motivated by money and less by ideology," the study states.
However, the study adds, some returnees from the battlefield in Ukraine claim that they did not take money, and experts believe that part of the Montenegrin public sees the fighters in that country as patriots who came to the aid of "ideologically related brothers", while the fighters in Syria and He sees Iraq, places that are not religiously and culturally connected with Montenegro, as if they had joined the enemy.
"However, officials stress that some of the priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) are recognized for promoting a type of extremism that makes them as powerful in radicalization as Salafi ideologies. Montenegrin sources admit that many reintegration and deradicalization programs are challenging to implement." , the study concludes.Most fighters on foreign battlefields in a period of five years went from Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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