The Women's Forum of the Nikšić URA Municipal Board, in anticipation of the autumn session and the session on the occasion of the Liberation Day of Nikšić, on September 18, will send an initiative to the Nikšić Municipal Assembly to make a decision on erecting a memorial to the heroine of anti-fascism, Joka Baletić, this political party announced.
"Joka Baletić was born in 1924, in Broćanac, near Nikšić, where she finished elementary school. At a very young age, by force of circumstances, she took up arms and joined the national liberation movement. During the war, she participated as a nurse in IV to the strike battalion of the Nikšić NOP, continuously demonstrating exceptional courage and self-sacrifice.
On May 9, 1942, in the fierce battles that the partisans waged with the Italians and their local collaborators, she was captured, together with commissioner Ljubo Čupić, on the terrain of Kablena glavica. After several days of torture and unsuccessful attempts to get any information from her about her comrades and their plans, the occupier sentenced her to death. She was just a girl, 17 years old
Before the verdict was carried out, Joka, defying the enemy, looking death in the eyes, raised her bound hands up and with clenched fists cheered for freedom. She did not allow the executioner to put the noose around her neck, but did it herself. When they asked her about her last wish, she answered the way she lived, denying and proud: 'She is known to my friends. You will hear it when they execute it!'" stated in the announcement of GP URA.
The announcement adds that we can never repay Joki for what she gave us, but that we can and must try and do our best to make her sacrifice worthwhile, at least by remembering her heroic deed and respecting the values for which she gave her young life.
"This is especially necessary today, when we are witnessing increasingly frequent historical revisionism, relativization and even denial of generally accepted civilizational achievements. There is no doubt that fascism was defeated on the battlefield, but as an ideological-political concept it is still present - this time, well disguised in contemporary and 'democratic' political togas...
We are sure that, in the light of continuous daily political folklore, we can all gather at least around such initiatives, and in a symbolic but important way, express our respect for what Joka Baletić gave to Nikšić and Montenegro, the harbor of freedom, pride and defiance against the jaws of fascism and death - a light that can never be extinguished," the announcement concludes.
Bonus video:
