Conference "Dialogue to face the past": All for peace, all against war

"The destructive and unreasonable war effort caused great and unprecedented trauma to Montenegrin and Croatian citizens, and one of the ways to overcome that trauma is to talk about it," said the executive director of Human Rights Action (HRA), Tea Gorjanc Prelevic, at the panel. "Dialogue to face the past", which was held at the Budo Tomović KIC in Podgorica.

The 31st anniversary of the attack on Dubrovnik was marked by the testimonies of former reservists of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and participants in the defense of Dubrovnik, organized by HRA and the Drama Studio Prazan Prostor.

"The goal is to help establish trust and reconciliation between the citizens of Montenegro and Croatia through a dialogue based on facts," said Gorjanc Prelevic.

She recalled that the Hague Tribunal only dealt with the most serious attack on the Old Town of Dubrovnik on December 6, 1991, while no one was held accountable for other crimes in the wider Dubrovnik area during the seven-month siege.

Theater director and professor at FDU Cetinje, Petar Pejaković, pointed out that the young people they talked to, working on the play "Death in Dubrovnik", do not know anything about it, that there is no story about the siege of Dubrovnik anywhere in the textbooks, nor do the teachers mention it.

"It is wrong to remain silent about it, the children should know what happened, to cultivate a culture of memory, so that nothing like this happens again," said Pejaković.

He explained that "Death in Dubrovnik" is a semi-documentary play based on the testimonies of the participants of the events in Dubrovnik. He explains that about 30 interviews were held with participants in the war events from Montenegro, and that it is good that there are more and more people who want to talk about it.

He stated that it was difficult to listen to those confessions, and that, among other things, he was shocked when he heard that in Morinje, among other things, "they made the prisoners bark at the light bulb".

Danijela Vojinović, an assistant on the RECOM Reconciliation Network project, stated that there is still no political will of the states for international reconciliation, and that the goal of that organization is to establish the truth, to support local initiatives to deal with the past, as well as to present all experiences of war crimes from the point of view of the victims.

"It is important that there are plays and films in order to interest the younger generation in this topic, so that it is not forgotten and repeated," Vojinović said.

Journalist and former JNA reservist Veseljko Koprivica explained that Pobjeda and RTCG were the pioneers of warmongering journalism.

"Momir Bulatović called for war, Milo Đukanović said that he hated the checkerboard and that he would finally demarcate with Croatia, and Marović that this is a war for peace," Koprivica reminded.

As he says, he was forced to go to Konavle, that he was the driver of a company, that there was terrible looting, burning of houses, "but that was done by 10, 15 reservists, the others tried to stop them, but they threatened to will not see the dawn".

Journalist and publicist from Dubrovnik, Luko Brailo, also recalled the photographs taken by photographer Pavo Urban, who was killed while photographing the destruction of Dubrovnik on December 6, 1991.

"The fact is that war is the worst possible form of communication between people, it is unimaginable what people are ready for in war, but it is important to show that not everyone is the same," he added.

That they are not all the same is also shown by the testimony of the President of the Assembly of Volunteers of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County and the President of the War Invalids Club, Goran Žuvela, who also told that on December 6, when the city was burning, someone tricked the commander and 38 grenades were disabled so that it didn't burn.

"A monument should be erected to that man, that someone did not activate those grenades, and if that had happened, Dubrovnik would have burned to the ground," Žuvela pointed out. He also stressed that a monument should be erected to the women of Dubrovnik, because they are the biggest victims, although no one mentions them: "If it weren't for those women, Dubrovnik would have fallen."

He said that his sister was three years old when she turned gray from the shelling of Dubrovnik.

Participant in the defense of Dubrovnik and a prisoner in the Morinj camp, Zlatko Bagoje said that he spent 66 days in Morinj, stating that it was a "torture place": "Completely innocent people were brought, and old people were mistreated, humiliated, beaten"...

He said that they were exposed to psychological terror, intimidated by fake executions, that they had no food, that after a few days they were given wet blankets to cover them...

However, he pointed out that there was a guard, Mladen Proročić, who was also in the Dodesta hall while Bagoje was speaking, who helped him find out where his family was, who also helped the other prisoners, that he brought them cigars, "while he was on guard, we were practically free people.

Former JNA reservist Marjan Šantić also pointed out that they threatened to kill his family if he did not go to Dubrovnik. "The hardest thing for me was when I saw children's toys hidden behind the water heater in one house... Likewise, some people were buried so shallow that their hands came out when it started to rain," said Šantić.

He says that even now he is afraid of what will happen to him because of what he says on the panel.

Journalist Brailo added that the hardest time for him was in November 1991, when he accompanied his wife and children to the ship, and that he was not sure he would see them again.

"You learn how to wash your ears, face and body with a liter of water and still get drunk, you learn to be happy when you get a piece of bread," he pointed out. He also said that shells were falling on Dubrovnik until the agreement in Dayton at the end of 1995.

Lawyer Budislav Minić said that he regrets being the commander of the Dubrovnik unit, and that after the war he was in Dubrovnik to pay tribute to "his wartime enemies".

Director of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG), Milka Tadić Mijović, pointed out that for three decades the falsification of history and the attempt to forget has been in force, and that we must not forget who were the main inspirers of these crimes.

"Unfortunately, those people are still in power today," she concluded.

The executive director of the Center for Civic Education, Daliborka Uljarević, emphasized that there is strong resistance to the introduction of these topics into the education system, and that this must be changed.

The participants of the conference agreed that the most important thing is for young people to hear and know what happened in the nineties, so that something like that would never happen again.

"Everything for peace, everything against war," concluded Koprivica.

Action for Human Rights pointed out that the attack on Dubrovnik began on October 1, 1991, and that the war took place from Prevlaka and Konaval across the wider region of Dubrovnik, including the Old Town, which suffered the heaviest shelling on December 6, 1991.

They add that the JNA military formations were commanded by General Pavle Strugar, and that the Siege of Dubrovnik lasted until May 26, 1992, during which 116 civilians, 194 Croatian defenders and 165 members of the JNA from Montenegro were killed.

The gathering also featured an exhibition of photographs by Pav Urban, published by the SENSE Center for Transitional Justice on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the attack on Dubrovnik.

The photographs document the shelling of Dubrovnik in 1991, and include the last photographs taken by Urban on December 6, 1991, at the time of the fiercest artillery attack in which he lost his life.

The projects "Testimonies about the siege of Dubrovnik 1991-1992" Actions for human rights and "When we once went to Dubrovnik" Empty space are part of the project "REKOM Reconciliation Network" which is financially supported by the European Union.

The content of the projects is the sole responsibility of Action for Human Rights and Empty Space and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.