"Cemeteries are state property, they cannot be allowed to become private, church property, or the property of other religious communities."

Cemeteries are state property and cannot be allowed to become private, church property, or property of other religious communities, and therefore Prime Minister Milojko Spajić should withdraw the amendments to the Law on State Property from further procedure.

This is the message from the conference "Changing the Ownership Status of Cemeteries", organized by the Strategy for a European and Civic Montenegro STEGA, the NGO Komunica NG and the Association of Lawyers of Montenegro.

A member of the Stega economic editorial team, Vladimir Nikaljević, said that on January 17, they addressed Spajić with an open letter regarding the proposed amendments to the Law on State Property, but that there was no response, PR Center reports.

"That is why STEGA warns the Montenegrin public that this may only seem like a small change to the Law, but in fact it is a fundamental change, which brings major and unforeseeable consequences. Therefore, we are all obliged not to allow this issue to be passed over lightly and not to be overshadowed by other current events," said Nikaljević.

Montenegrins, he said, will not give up or leave their history, historical figures, material, intangible, cultural and civilizational values ​​to anyone, and "least of all their cemeteries and the graves of their loved ones."

"We again warn the Prime Minister that the Government should not, without an adequate and publicly announced legal analysis, create conditions for changes to the current regime of ownership of cemeteries through this hasty amendment to the Law on State Property. Therefore, STEGA demands that the amendment to the Law be withdrawn from further procedure and that this issue be adequately and professionally considered with all the implications it carries."

By pushing through, along with the Budget Law, which has taken all the attention, as he said, of legal amendments aimed at changing the ownership of cemeteries, which are state property according to the Constitution and law, a series of additional questions are being raised.

"Why is there an attempt to change the ownership regime of cemeteries? It is obvious that this amendment paves the way for the legalization of previous illegal registrations. How have so many cemeteries been illegally registered with the Serbian Orthodox Church so far, if they are state-owned? Who is responsible for all the illegal registrations," Nikaljević asked.

STEGA will provide answers to the questions, but the first person invited to answer them is, as he said, the Prime Minister.

Lawyer and Stega member Vlado Vuković explained that the proposed amendment changes the legal status of cemeteries, so that cemeteries, as local assets in general use, owned by the municipality, become other local assets of general interest owned by the municipality.

"The proposed term "cemeteries on municipal property" openly conveys that there are also cemeteries that are not on municipal property. This is legally impermissible and reveals the true intention of the proponents of New Serbian Democracy. The proposed solution creates legal assumptions that cemeteries can be privately owned, which means also church property, with the obvious intention of legalizing the registration of ownership rights to cemeteries in the name of religious organizations and communities," said Vuković.

He explained that assets in general use, which according to the current Law on State Property includes cemeteries, can only be state-owned, while assets of general interest, and according to the amendment, cemeteries should also be given that status in the law, can be privately owned or owned by religious communities and organizations.

"Considering the fact that the majority of cemeteries and churches in Montenegro are illegally registered with the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Real Estate Administration or in the cadastre, the clear intention of the proposed amendment is to strengthen and legalize the illegal registrations that have already been made, and that in the future the same church can also register other unregistered cemeteries in its name," said Vuković.

He asked whether the Prime Minister's intention is to change the state-legal status of cemeteries in Montenegro and allow the renaming of cemeteries, and whether he intends to allow cemeteries to become exclusively mono-ethnic and mono-religious, to be owned by private individuals and religious organizations with complete freedom of decision-making.

"STEGA calls on him to consider the essence of the amendment and the consequences of the amendment to the Law on State Property, and to act in accordance with the powers of the proposer, and withdraw the amendment in question from the parliamentary procedure. Cemeteries and graves are an indissoluble connection of the living with their ancestors, with the memory of their origins, with history, with Montenegro," said Vuković.

Igor Gojnić, a lawyer and member of the non-governmental association Komunica NG, said that the association "defined two waves of illegal registrations of the Serbian church, with the first wave dating back to 1988," when "the majority of churches and cemeteries were registered through the census cadastre without a legal basis and a single decision on registration, which still does not exist today."

"The second wave of mass registrations refers to the period from 2020, in which the Real Estate Administration of Montenegro allows the Church of Serbia to, through a change in the way the property is used, register the property as property, or more simply, to become the owner of the property in question. In the Municipality of Bar alone, 2022 churches, monasteries and cemeteries were registered with the Church of Serbia in 18," Gojnić pointed out.

"Both waves," it adds, "occurred in times when 'states were breaking apart,' which clearly indicates the existence of the SPC's plan from which there is no deviation."

On this occasion, as he said, a criminal complaint was filed with the Basic Prosecutor's Office in Bar, and "the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro was notified of the illegal registrations, but nothing was done."

"The NG communiqué submitted a Constitutional initiative to initiate proceedings to assess compliance with the Constitution and the Law regarding the Decision on Burial, Arrangement and Maintenance of Cemeteries in the Municipality of Zeta, which introduces the category of religious cemeteries. The Constitutional Court has not yet responded to the submitted initiative. Therefore, all bodies that are supposed to protect the state of Montenegro and work for its benefit are doing their utmost not to do the job for which they were formed," Gojnić said.

Miloš Vukčević, a member of the Lawyers' Association, said that "a seemingly technical, but very serious change" is changing the ownership regime when it comes to cemeteries and allows cemeteries, which are, under current law, exclusively state property, to become private property.

"The term good in general use looks very similar to the term good of general interest. But the devil is in the details. That one small change is crucial. If cemeteries from Article 16 move from goods in general use to other local goods of general interest in Article 17, then they can go from the state property regime to private property, church property, property of other religious communities, and that is something that cannot be allowed," said Vukčević.

First of all, he added, we should start from Article 58 of the Constitution, which states that natural resources and goods in general use are state property.

"We call on Prime Minister Spajić to withdraw this draft law with this amendment from the parliamentary procedure and to state his position on this legal issue. Let's not play around with this and let the Prime Minister and the Government withdraw the draft law, because this amendment has become an integral part of the Law. The greatest responsibility lies with Prime Minister Spajić," Vukčević believes.