Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civic activists expressed their protest over what they said was the president's joining the wave of revisionism and falsification of the recent past by awarding the medal to Amfilohije Radović.
Montenegrin President Jakov Milatović announced on October 19 that he had decided to posthumously award the highest state order to the former Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), Amfilohije.
"Vijesti" wrote that Milatović decided to posthumously award Amfilohije the highest state order, even though it is awarded to presidents of states and leaders of international organizations.
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"President Jakov Milatović announced that he is posthumously awarding the 'highest state order' to the religious head of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, Amfilohije Radović. It is unclear which order this is, since the formal conditions for awarding the 'highest order', based on the Law on State Decorations and Recognitions - that the decorated person is the president of another state or international organization - have not been met. The president has so far insisted on a legalistic approach, so his decision to grossly violate the law due to his populist approach to the right-wing electorate is surprising," the statement submitted by the Center for Civic Education (CCE) states.
They pointed out that the explanation Milatović offered in support of the decoration represented, to say the least, incomplete information.
"Amfilohije did not contribute to the destabilization of Montenegro during the referendum period, but only after he actively supported Serbia in waging five wars on the territory of the former Yugoslavia and was one of the most vocal supporters of the "blood and soil" ideology, according to which Serbia had the right to expand into all neighboring territories inhabited by Serbs," the statement said.
According to them, Amfilohije welcomed, defended, celebrated and hid war criminals from the wars of the 1990s, including Željko Ražnatović Arkan and Radovan Karadžić.
"He supported the siege of Dubrovnik, visited the Dubrovnik battlefield in 1991 and, playing the fiddle, "braved up" military units that were ravaging the Croatian south, looting and attacking unarmed civilians. After the lost wars, he continued to celebrate the leaders of the Chetnik movement, promoting the defeated 'age-old vow to unite all Serbian lands'. He denied and justified the genocide in Srebrenica. He called Muslims, who make up 20 percent of the population of Montenegro, 'false people, false religions', who made sense to kill. Vojislav Šešelj, a convicted war criminal for crimes against humanity, for inciting war crimes in Vukovar in 1991 and the persecution of Croats from the Vojvodina village of Hrtkovica, whose volunteer detachments were aggressors in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina - was awarded the Order in 2015," the statement reads.
They said that he stood out for his xenophobic, homophobic, and misogynistic views, which we spoke out against even during his lifetime, and added that he was also warned in court for his hate speech.
"Although it is unclear exactly which order the president awarded the metropolitan, it is paradoxical that the Order of Montenegro, the Order of the Montenegrin Great Star, the Order of Montenegrin Independence or the Order of the Montenegrin Flag – was awarded to someone who denied the existence of Montenegrins and expressed this in extremist language, saying that Montenegrins are 'communist offspring or bastards'. Back in 1989, he stated in the Belgrade Književne Novine: 'There has never been a Montenegrin nation in history', and in 1992, in the Belgrade magazine Svet, he claimed: 'The Montenegrin nation was invented in Tito's and Đilas' laboratory. 'He did not change his mind even two decades later when, during a service at the Cetinje Monastery in 2017, he said: 'There are many Montenegrins who think they are Montenegrins only because they were born in Montenegro. What kind of Montenegrins are they. (…) They think they are Montenegrins only because, like oxen, they were born in Montenegro. "They are not Montenegrins," the statement reads.
They pointed out that because of all of the above, they believe that this action by the president contributes to the unacceptable normalization of extreme nationalism and deepens divisions instead of strengthening unity in Montenegro.
"The propaganda that attempts to build a personality cult around Amfilohije has taken hold to such an extent that even opposition parties do not have the courage to remind us of the full truth about the activities of a prominent cleric who deeply polarized Montenegro. In this context, we also express our protest against the intention to erect a 2,5-meter-high monument to him in Kolašin, after the erection of a 4-meter-high monument in Berane is already underway. In addition to municipalities and the president of the state, the Government of Montenegro is also participating in the glorification of Amfilohije and the ideology he symbolizes, and has given its consent to erect a memorial in Berane as soon as possible. It is important to emphasize that the Ministry of Culture and Media previously legally rejected the request, referring to Article 10 (prohibition of erecting memorials to persons who played a negative role in history, collaborated with the occupier or advocated chauvinistic ideas) and Article 20 of the Law on Memorials (that a memorial, as a rule, cannot be erected before 20 years after the person's death, as "history could give an objective judgment on its merits)," they said in a statement.
According to them, the simultaneous erection of a monument and awarding of a medal to the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church is an indicator of the eroded secularism of Montenegro and the threatened equality of all its citizens.
"We do not deny Amfilohije's role in the history of the past thirty years, nor that he contributed to the expansion of the influence of the Serbian Orthodox Church. However, we find this role questionable, since it was not humanistic, but in the unequivocal interest of a defeated nationalist program. Unilateral activities aimed at idolizing this controversial figure are not in the public interest and do not contribute to social cohesion and a sense of equality of all citizens. Montenegro has a tradition of dogmatic and uncritical support for leaders, secular and spiritual, but it is high time that such practices were replaced with a culture of respect for the law and human rights of all its inhabitants," the statement concluded, signed by:
civic activist Dina Bajramspahić; civic activist Danijel Kalezić; civic activist Dušan Pajović; civic activist Jovana Marović; civic activist Milena Bešić; civic activist Paula Petričević; civic activist Nikoleta Đukanović; Tea Gorjanc Prelević, Human Rights Action (HRA); Filip Kuzman, Antifascists Cetinje; Jovan Ulićević, Spektra Association; Daliborka Uljarević, Center for Civic Education (CCE); Nevenka Vuksanović, Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM); Milan Marković, Montenegrin Philological Society; Velija Murić, Montenegrin Committee of Lawyers for the Protection of Human Rights; Zorana Marković, Center for NGO Development (CRNVO); Zlatko Vujović, Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI); Adnan Čirgić, Montenegrin PEN Center; Maja Raičević, Center for Women's Rights; Ervina Dabižinović, Center for Women's and Peace Education ANIMA; Almedina Dodić, Eduko Plus; Emir Pilav, NGO Husein Paša; Milena Popović Samardžić, NGO Ipso facto; Ivana Vujović, NGO Juventas; Staša Baštrica, KVIR Montenegro; Zenepa Lika, MSJA; Slavica Striković, Women's Action; Miloš Vukanović, Association of History Professors of Montenegro - HIPMONT.
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