Naming one of the streets in Bar “Victims of the Bar Massacre” is the least the local government can do to honor the victims of that crime and condemn the killing of civilians in that city. This is an initial step towards memorializing the mass murder, and preparations for a scientific symposium are underway, and an initiative to erect a memorial will be submitted.
That's what he told "Vijesta". Suljo Mustafić, president of the Bosniak Council in Montenegro, commenting on the lawyer's initiative The slaughter of Camaj and civic activist Aleksandar Saša Zeković.
They submitted such a proposal to the Bar municipality in April of this year, and the Council for Proposing Names of Settlements, Streets and Squares in the Bar Municipal Assembly (SO Bar), as "Vijesti" has learned, will decide on it next week.
In the first days of April, 1945, in the place of the former Tobacco Monopoly, there was a group of several hundred unarmed young men, recruits from Kosovo, from several towns there. Most of them were Albanian, a number of Bosniaks and some other nationalities. They were forcibly mobilized and brought, in order, allegedly, to go further in the final operations of liberating some areas where armed fighting was still being waged. At the Tobacco Monopoly, through Pristan, then in Novi Bar, Barsko Polje, Zaljevo, Stari Bar and other locations, and in the surrounding hills, without trial, they were shot “unarmed and bare-handed”, and only a few survived with the help of the people of Bar who offered shelter in their homes.
"The Bar massacre is a serious crime committed by Yugoslav partisan units against unarmed civilians 80 years ago," Mustafić stressed, adding that "it is a great shame and condemnable, because the killing of innocent and unarmed young men, recruits from Kosovo, forcibly interned and brought to Bar, cannot be justified in any way."
Even less can the decades-long silence about this event be justified, he believes, as can the fact that their bones lie in unmarked places and in mass graves about which nothing is known, except for those marked on local hills by locals.
Every innocent victim, of any religion or nation, deserves full respect and reverence, Mustafić believes, and in this case, it is hundreds of innocent civilians.
"This major topic, long hidden and postponed, was opened to the wider public by the Albanian Council and the Bosniak Council in Montenegro, with the memorialization and marking of the 80th anniversary of this event, on April XNUMXnd of this year. Let us recall that on that day, in a dignified manner, we paid tribute to the innocent victims, together with some descendants of the victims' families and the ambassador of the Republic of Kosovo," Mustafić told "Vijesti".
The meeting was also attended by the Mayor of Ulcinj Genzi Nimanbeg, MP Ilir Chapuni and other personalities. However, none of the representatives of the Municipality of Bar responded to their invitation, although, Mustafić claims, it was sent to them properly and on time, which surprised them.
At that time, the Albanian Council and the Bosniak Council announced that they were jointly preparing a scientific symposium where competent experts and scientists from the region would thoroughly and systematically address this topic and, with an objective, historiographical and scientific approach, speak and write about this tragic event.
"There will probably be an initiative to erect a memorial in the Bar Monopoly compound, at the place where the massacre began," he pointed out.
A scientific judgment on the Bar massacre, from the historical distance of eight decades, they believe, will be free from any bias, daily politics, or gossip.
"Only the full historical truth and documented facts can shed light on this topic and contribute to an objective confrontation with the past. I think that such an approach is necessarily healing for us, when it comes to this long-hidden topic in Bar, but also when other similar topics in Montenegro and the region are raised or opened. However, what is visible in Bar and is very clearly noticeable is that the multiethnic and multireligious heritage of Bar is almost not recognized in the street names, and that the absence of significant Barans, figures from Bosniak and Albanian local tradition and history is visible," said Mustafić.
He states that a number, almost symbolic, of these names of significant figures have their own streets, but they are mostly in the suburbs, in some remote areas, and some are misspelled, and adds that he was once a signatory and initiator of an initiative that listed about fifteen figures and biographies, both from the past of Bar, but also others of general and broader cultural importance, famous builders, humanists, social activists, educators, endowments and benefactors.
At that time, they cited their merits, because they made an exceptional contribution to the development of Bar, some even marked it, so their names are still mentioned in local tradition today, Mustafić emphasizes, recalling that the Council at that time accepted only two or three names, "almost not caring about history or humanism, nor the cultural tradition of Bar."
He believes that it is obvious that even then, and even today, the Council for Proposing Names of Settlements, Streets and Squares of the Bar Municipal Council does not have a single competent representative of the Bosniak and Albanian communities in Bar, which, he says, speaks for itself.
Moreover, he states, this violates the Constitution, Article 79, and the Law on Minority Rights (Articles 26 and 28), which stipulate a clear obligation of local governments on the effective participation of minority communities, where local governments are obliged to consult minority councils when making important decisions concerning minority peoples and their heritage and culture, and also stipulate the obligation that, through these local bodies, representatives of minority peoples must be included.
"This is therefore a violation of the right to effective participation in decision-making in local self-government bodies, as well as in their creation and approval," Mustafić said.
He concludes that they hope, "because it would be high time" that the local government in Bar, in communication with their councils, will correct this previous bad practice.
Even less can one justify the decades-long silence about this event, as well as the fact that their bones lie in unmarked places and in mass graves about which nothing is known, except for those marked by locals on local hills.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
