Proponents of Chetnik ideology are the least invited to speak about the victims of fascist terror, unless they are ready to repent and apologize.
This is what they told the President of the Municipality of Pljevlja, Darij Vraneš, from the Association of Fighters of the National Liberation War and anti-fascists of that city, after his recent statement that the cause of the "brutal crime" against the inhabitants of the villages of Pljevlja, committed in December 1941 after the Battle of Pljevlja, was "another brutal crime what the communists did to the Italian soldiers".
"Regarding the statement of the current president of the municipality of Pljevlja, Mr. Vraneš, the Association of Fighters of the People's Liberation War and Anti-Fascists of Pljevlja believes that it is a matter of political abuse of the victims of fascist terror for daily political purposes by which they try to absolve murderers, fascist criminals, and shift the blame to the anti-fascist liberation movement. Unfortunately, in Montenegro, freedom was never won without victims, but we think that the advocates of the Chetnik ideology are least invited to talk about them and visit their graves, unless they intend to repent and apologize at that place. The president of the municipality has a great responsibility and he should reconcile and not fight people in this city", announced "Vijesti".
Last weekend, Vraneš, during the funeral service in the village of Sažići, in the Pljevlja local community of Crljenica, which was held for the victims of fascist retaliation on December 7, 1941, when 67 locals, mostly women and children, were killed, said, among other things:
"The youngest victim, Jelenka Terzić, was only 37 days old! In order to know and feel the time in which we live and our future, we must look back at our past. The motive for this brutal crime is another brutal crime committed by the communists against the Italian soldiers and it was the reason for this retaliation against the innocent population... We as a people must understand that we need to follow serious people, not adventurers at all. Let the events of the past be a warning for the future".
In his statement to "Vijesti", Vraneš reiterated that the crime in the village of Crljenice was preceded by a crime against Italian soldiers at Sava's Elbow, on Jabuca, for which, he claims, "communist adventurers" were responsible.
"I understand the anger of the gentlemen from the veterans' association who finally realized that the truth, which we all knew, has officially come to light after a full 82 years. I invite everyone who is in any doubt to just look at the pictures of the mutilated bodies of the Italian soldiers who were killed and massacred by the communist adventurers on Sava's elbow just before the events in Crljenice. For 82 years, the official government kept silent about the crime in Crljenice, knowing exactly who irritated the Italian occupier to carry out such a brutal reprisal," said Vraneš, clarifying his earlier position expressed during the speech after the memorial service.
"Vijesti" first directed the questions to Vraneš, and only then asked for a comment from the Association of Fighters of the National Liberation War and anti-fascists of Pljevlja, so the story about "gentlemen's anger" falls flat.
Liberation Day, Holy Friday and candles for Chetniks
But the story about the attempt to rewrite history and equalize the liberation - Partisan and Quinsling - Chetnik movement, which is not the first time that Vraneš, a member of the New Serbian Democracy, has done it. On November 20, when Pljevlja celebrates Municipal Day - the day when the partisans liberated the city from Germans and Chetniks in 1944, Vraneš paid tribute to the martyred freedom fighters, and then, just twenty meters from the monument on Stražica, lit candles at the site of the pit where as some historians and politicians claim, the communists threw 25 Chetniks...
At that time, he also pointed out that he thinks that November 20 will be the last time celebrated as the Day of the Municipality, considering that the parliamentary majority recently adopted October 27 as the new city holiday, the day on which Holy Friday is celebrated. The consent of the Government is necessary for this decision of the local parliament...
To the question of "Vijesti" - whether there are pictures of massacred Italian soldiers in the Native Museum, mentioned by Vraneš, from the Association of Fighters of the National Liberation War and anti-fascists of Pljevlja answered that this question should be sent to the museum, so that they would have a clear picture of it. .
The director of the Native Museum, Dijana Drobnjak, said that the institution owns paintings from the time of the Italian occupation, but she could not say whether the museum possesses the paintings that Vraneš mentions, without a more detailed check.
The president of the second SOBNOR veterans' organization in 1941-1945, Milenko Jović, did not want to comment on Vraneš's allegations.
Crimes that Vranes does not mention
Historians contacted by "Vijesti" did not want to talk about Vraneš's view of the Battle of Pljeval and the crimes committed. They unofficially said that they did not want to get involved in a story based on the works of "obscure revisionists" and that a lot was written about the Battle of Pljeval at a time when its participants could testify to the events...
According to numerous historical sources, the Battle of Pljeval took place on December 1 and 2, when the partisans unsuccessfully tried to conquer the city...
The first crimes, which Vraneš does not mention, were committed by the occupiers - members of the Italian division of Pusteria. According to numerous testimonies, the fascists killed captured partisans, including the wounded, who failed to retreat from the city after the failed attack. During the conflict, many houses were demolished. The citizens of Pljevlja who tried to help the fighters also died, including pharmacist Risto Vukotić. "Vijesti" previously wrote about Vukotić, whose name is now borne by the state pharmacy institution in that city...
Those crimes happened a few days before the alleged "brutal crime committed by the communists" against captured Italian soldiers, which Vraneš pointed out during the eulogy for the fallen civilians.
Seeing events and historians, councilors of Nova
The crimes of the occupying army committed before December 7 and the suffering of civilians in the surrounding villages are not mentioned even by the historian and councilor of Nova in the local parliament Božidar Jelovac.
He claims that there are photographs of massacred Italian soldiers in the National Museum:
"It has been said for years that retaliation was carried out against the civilian population in Crljenice because the partisan forces fought the Italians at Sava's Elbow on December 2 and 3, 1941 and inflicted losses on them. They wanted to cover up what happened on December 6".
And on that day, as Jelovac says, Italian soldiers were massacred.
"Until the Battle of Pljeval, there was no conflict between partisans and Chetniks anywhere in this region. In the village of Bučje, in the municipality of Priboj, Chetniks and partisans together attacked the carabinieri station and captured 20 Italian carabinieri. Before the Battle of Pljeval, these carabinieri were used to cut trees and block the Priboj-Pljevlja road on the Čemerno pass. The captured Italians were taken over by members of the partisan battalion Bajo Pivljanin. After the failure at the Battle of Pljevlja and heavy losses, those carabinieri were taken to Jabuka, and on the road Prijepolje - Pljevlja, on the evening of December 6, massacred. The photographs exist in the Native Museum. On the morning of the seventh, an Italian column from Prijepolje came and found dead and massacred members, and they immediately started retaliating. The civilian population was taken aback and did not expect it," Jelovac said, stressing that he condemns the heinous crime of Italian soldiers against the innocent residents of Crljenice, but that "the reason why it was done must finally be known."
"The question arises as to why someone liquidated the prisoners on the road and whose intention was that. Why did someone do that, when he knew that there would be retribution against innocent civilians".
Jelovac also claims to have a video testimony of a local resident about the murder and massacre of captured Italian soldiers...
Pljevljak Drago J. Lončarević in his book "Consequences of the Second World War in Crljenice", published in 2010, writes that "many participants believe that the killing of Italian soldiers was the main reason for the tragedy in Crljenice".
He says that this event was also described by "a surviving Italian soldier" in his book "Black Eagles from the High Mountains".
He lies in wait on Sava's elbow
"Victorious history", as it is often called today by those who try to equate the Partisan and Chetnik movements, tells about Sava's elbow and the retaliation against the civilian population that followed. According to historical sources, after the partisan attack on Pljevlja, an Italian motorized convoy was sent from Prijepolje to help. Partisans set up an ambush at Sava's Elbow, and on that occasion more than 60 Italian soldiers were captured. The Italians did not manage to break through to Pljevlja even the next day, with dozens of dead and wounded. The third attack was allegedly successful and on December 4 the Italians managed to suppress the partisan forces, and then on the way to Pljevlja on December 6 and 7 they killed more than a hundred inhabitants of the surrounding villages, mostly women, old people and children.
About forty years ago, the journalist "Vijesti" listened to the testimonies of the participants of the Battle of Pljeval from the Durmitor region - that there was talk of the killing of a small number of captured Italian soldiers, but that they had not personally seen it...
Who do they blame for Bukovica, Breza and other Chetnik victims
From the Association of Fighters of the National Liberation War and anti-fascists of Pljevlja, they posed a hypothetical question to the "proponents of the Chetniks, even though we know they will not go there", who will they blame for the victims if they go, for example, to the execution ground in Bukovica where Quisling Chetnik units killed 1.500 innocent civilian victims.
"Whom will they blame if they go to Sjenjak near Pljevlja or Breza near Kolašin, where several hundred patriots who were taken to Italian prisons by Quisling Chetnik formations who were loyal servants of the fascists until the capitulation of Italy in 1943 and later were shot? What will they say if they go to the graves of the mother of Pljevalja, the mother of the Tasovac family, the mother of the Stamenić family, the mother of Miša Janketić, the mother of Radomir Matović, the woman who was shot three times by the black Chetnik troika in 24 hours? All those mothers who were taken from their homes and children by the Chetniks and whose graves are unknown".
Announces the street after the wartime president of the municipality
Vraneš said that he believed that the "gentleman from the veterans' association" was irritated by both the memorial and public gratitude, which he expressed to the then president of the municipality of Pljevlja, Bogdan Nenadić.
"To the beloved Pljevljak, whose cries and pleas to the Italians stopped further retaliation against civilians. To a man whose merits saved many lives, and whom the communists marked as a class enemy and killed without trial or trial in Novi Pazar in 1945, without the right for his family to know about his grave. And perhaps from the veterans' association they sensed the citizens' initiative that one of the streets of Pljevlja should be named after this great Pljevlja, the first president of the municipality who won the direct elections in 1933 convincingly. A beloved citizen of Pljevlja who, as the president of the municipality, lived as a tenant and who was the most successful president of the municipality of Pljevlja so far. "Truth and justice are slow but they are attainable, true reconciliation without frustrations and a look into the future", said Vraneš to "Vijesta".
The failure weakened the Partisans and strengthened the Chetniks
According to historical sources, Pljevlja was attacked by more than three and a half thousand partisans on December 1, 1941, and it was the biggest battle in occupied Yugoslavia that year.
The city was defended by an Italian garrison with more than two thousand soldiers, and heavy fighting was fought until dawn on December 2, when the partisans withdrew from the occupied parts of the city.
In the fighting, 252 Italian soldiers were killed and wounded, and 84 and 4 officers were captured. Partisans had 218 dead and 269 wounded fighters.
The failure demoralized a large number of fighters, so about 2.500 of them returned home, and only 700 remained in the units.
The Partisan leadership concluded that the reasons for the failure were multiple, and the main one was that newly formed units without sufficient experience and artillery frontally attacked a well-fortified and many times better equipped and armed enemy.
The defeat at Pljevlja led to the weakening of the partisan movement in Montenegro and at the same time to the strengthening of the Chetniks....
Pharmacist shot for helping the wounded
Apothecary Risto Vukotić was shot by the Italians during the Battle of Pljeval because he was helping wounded partisans.
"Vijesti" previously announced that Vukotić graduated from pharmacy school in Constantinople and was the first Pljevljak to receive a higher education.
It is recorded that upon his return to Pljevlja in 1901, he was given a magnificent welcome, which was attended by a large number of people, even the Pasha of Sandžac.
The first pharmacy in Pljevlja was opened in 1875 by the Turkish military doctor Besim Efendi. The pharmacy was owned by him until 1912, when he left for Turkey. The pharmacy was taken over by Vukotić, who worked as an assistant at Besim. Vukotić worked there until his death...
Bonus video:
