Students, around 100 of them, called on the media reporting on the protests organized by the informal student group "Where Tomorrow?" to label them "as a group of citizens expressing their views, but not as a 'Montenegrin student movement'".
"Respecting the legitimate right to freedom of assembly and expression of opinion of our colleagues from the informal group 'Kamo sjutra', as well as, after all, the legitimate right to protest of all other citizens, we are obliged to react to the constructed media environment in which the protests of this group are treated as a movement of all students. Of course, sharing the most sincere pain with the families and friends of the victims, we oppose any kind of, political or personal, abuse of the tragic events that shook all citizens of Montenegro. Partly in this sense, we cannot help but notice how the members of the informal organization 'Kamo sjutra' demonstrated a kind of monolithic and one-sided, often exclusive, attitude towards this common problem, and how their protests, in most of the media, were labeled, and often treated, as an all-student movement," the statement reads, along with a list of students who signed the appeal to the media.
The statement also states that the "Where to Tomorrow?" protest "cannot be considered student-led."
"We cannot, and do not want to, deny anyone, including, of course, individual students, the elementary right to publicly express their views and advocate for them, but we are obliged to point out that the protest of the "Kamo sjutra" group cannot be considered student, since there is no elementary representativeness on the basis of which it can be said that students are behind these protests. For a clearer picture, we remind you that the elected representatives of students at the University of Montenegro, as well as other universities, have not authorized the "Kamo sjutra" group to speak and act on their behalf, and that the elected representatives of students do not participate in the decision-making of this group."
The undersigned students believe that it is not appropriate for this group to "present itself as a movement of Montenegrin students, nor for its actions to be interpreted as the actions of all students in our country."
"We are particularly confused by the fact that the councils of certain faculties have decided to officially declare their support for this 'informal student group', without prior consideration of formal student groups, but primarily the Student Parliament - not only regarding this specific case, but also regarding other, very important for us students, issues and problems. Ultimately, we believe that the monopolization of the very name 'students' by any informal organization that does not have mechanisms for participation in its decision-making is inappropriate. In this regard, we would like to remind you once again: in Montenegro there are numerous formal and informal groups that advocate for their specific goals, however, none of them, except for our possibly elected representatives, has the right to speak on behalf of all of us."
The students who signed the appeal call on all citizens, including students, to speak in their own personal name, or on behalf of those organizations that authorize them to do so, but not on behalf of us students.
Among the signatories of the appeal is a law student, Mitar Paunović, and the spokesperson for Democratic Montenegro has the same name and surname.
The informal student group "Where Tomorrow?" filed a lawsuit against Democratic Montenegro for what they said were unfounded accusations.
The group "Where Tomorrow?" then stated on social media that members of the Democrats used their ministerial, parliamentary and other positions to make claims, without any evidence, that the organizers of the protest were members of organized crime groups.
As they said, in this way the Democrats directly threatened individuals from the Kamo Śutra collective.
They recalled that the Minister of Internal Affairs Danilo Šaranović, in the show Nedjelja u retrovizoru on Television Vijesti, said that he had operational data on the connection of an organized crime group to the protests. The Kamo Śutra group pointed out that Šaranović never informed them or the public about this operational data, which was requested of him.
The Student Parliament of the University of Montenegro (SPUCG) previously condemned all forms of targeting and attacks on students by politicians and other social actors.
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