HRA, CGO and ANIMA: mark the 30th anniversary of the crime of deportation of refugees with a monument to the victims and the Day of Remembrance

The non-governmental organizations Action for Human Rights (HRA), the Center for Civic Education (CGO) and the Center for Women's and Peace Education (ANIMA) expect the President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Alekse Bečić, and the Assembly of the Municipality of Herceg Novi, Ivan Otović, to implement the initiatives sent to them for raising monuments and the proclamation of the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Deportation of Bosnian-Herzegovinian refugees in a timely manner in the agenda of the assemblies they preside over, so that Montenegro will officially mark the thirtieth anniversary of the crime next May for the first time.

HRA, CGO and ANIMA announced that today is four months since they handed over to the President of the Assembly, Aleksa Bečić, the Initiative to declare May 27 as the Day of Remembrance for the victims of the deportation of refugees from Montenegro in 1992.

"We have not received a response to this initiative. On September 14, we submitted to the new president of the Herceg Novi Municipal Assembly, Ivan Otović, an initiative to raise a memorial to the victims of the deportation of refugees in 1992 in Herceg Novi, thus supporting the wish of the victims' families expressed more than ten years ago. year. With the monument and the Day of Remembrance, Montenegro should honor the victims and provide a permanent reminder of the crime against refugees that must never be repeated," states the joint statement.

They point out that they expect the new authorities, which claim to be more democratic and more committed to human rights than the previous ones, within the framework of their competences, through this concrete example, to contribute to the establishment of a culture of remembrance.

"We remind you that Mr. Bečić announced on May 27 of this year: "Today, when 29 years have passed since the deportation of Bosnian-Herzegovinian refugees from Montenegro, we feel great sadness for everything they and their loved ones went through during those unfortunate years on the territory of our of the state. Condemnation of crimes and reverence for the victims is the only way to heal the wounds of the past. The least we can do is to make sure that such crimes are not forgotten, and that similar things are never repeated." A public opinion survey conducted by HRA a year ago showed that as many as 82 percent of Montenegrin citizens believe that the place of every war crime should be marked with a memorial plaque or a monument to the victims, and 73 percent that for a better future it is necessary to cherish the memory of the events that everyone prefers to forget," it was announced.

The initiatives for erecting a monument and a day of remembrance were first submitted by this organization in 2011 together with the former member and president of the Council for Citizen Control of Police Work, Aleksandar Zeković, to the Prime Minister of Montenegro Igor Lukšić, the Minister of the Interior Ivan Brajović and the Minister of Culture Branislav Mićunović. as well as the then president of the Herceg-Novi Municipality Assembly, Dejan Mandić. They state that since then they have repeated them every year, but they have not been accepted until today.

"In May and June 1992, at least 66 Bosniak refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina were illegally arrested on the territory of Montenegro and then handed over to the hostile Bosnian Serb army in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Only 12 people deported from Montenegro managed to survive. torture in concentration camps Refugees deprived of their liberty were, as a rule, brought to the Herceg-Novi Security Center, which served as a collection center, from where they were transported by bus to the concentration camp in Foč on May 25, that is, on May 27 to an unspecified location in the eastern Bosnia, where they were killed. The remains of all the victims have not yet been found. Most of the victims of this crime were compensated in civil proceedings, while the Montenegrin court acquitted all those accused of war crimes against the civilian population in the criminal proceedings, referring to the fact that the accused , allegedly, did not have the necessary capacity to answer for a war crime because Montenegro was not officially a party to the armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Proceedings against Montenegro are being conducted before the European Court of Human Rights due to the ineffective investigation and prosecution of this crime," the announcement concludes.