Zeković: A monument to Đilas should be erected in Podgorica

Aleksandar Saša Zeković, an activist for human rights and memory politics, said that he had sent the government an initiative to "more adequately determine and dedicate" itself to "a more permanent memorialization and social memory" of Milovan Đilas.

He said that, in the initiative he sent at the end of April, he proposed, among other things, that the Government initiate the erection of a monument in Podgorica and that the collected works of Milovan Đilas be published.

"On the occasion of July 13, I paid tribute to Milovan Đilas, a writer, revolutionary, national hero, one of the leaders of post-war Yugoslavia and its greatest dissident. Aware of the pre-war dictatorship, police repression, corruption, hegemony and exploitation, he was responsible for the introduction of liberal parliamentary democracy, already in the second half of July 1941. The temporary supreme command of the national liberation troops in Montenegro, Boka and Sandžak took over command of military units - the insurgent battalions and management of military operations. Based on the fact that power rests on the free will of the people, Đilas contributed to introducing order and legality in the liberated territory, as well as to regulating and ensuring a normal and free life for all citizens," Zeković said in a statement.

He reminds that Đilas is responsible for introducing women's voting rights for the first time in the history of Montenegro, and that he also enabled the creation of new political parties.

"In relation to the civil ideological conflict in Montenegro, Đilas, along with others, is unfoundedly associated with the so-called 'leftist deviations' ('leftist errors'). The facts show that he opposed and fiercely attacked secret murders without trial, clearly emphasizing that these were committed by individuals and groups, and not the partisan movement as a whole. He was the first to use the term 'lamentation' in a negative context," adds Zeković.

He says that Đilas was "the voice of the voiceless." "The post-war intellectual elite knew that Đilas was right. They chose to remain mostly silent, to blunt the edge of their criticism in relation to the unpleasant truth. Intellectuals agreed to censorship, as well as self-censorship, in order to survive in the bureaucratic and career pragmatism that they nevertheless enjoyed."

Zeković said that, as a citizen of Montenegro who has been "interested in the idea and practice of human rights for decades," he was particularly proud of Đilas's speech at the Founding Congress of the Communist Party of Serbia.

"His discussion from May 1945 still inspires the fight for respect for human rights today. Criticizing repression and the policy of oppression (a contemporary violation of human rights), Đilas advocated full tolerance and intercultural dialogue. He was critical of the continued survival of the military administration introduced in Kosovo and racial theories and approaches, especially towards Albanians. Even before the establishment of an international consensus on human rights (1948), Milovan Đilas, in the then Yugoslavia, advocated the concept of the survival of national minorities, the preservation of their identity and the advancement of human rights. Đilas's appearance seems to have made human rights an important part of the political agenda of the congress, which led, in further discussions, to the recognition of significant mistakes and crimes - the unjust mobilization of Albanians and Bosniaks in Kosovo and their execution in Bar, Montenegro," notes Zeković.

"We should be grateful" to the former mayor of Podgorica, Ivan Vuković, and the political structures he gathered during his time, for a street in Podgorica becoming a place of remembrance for Milovan Đilas and his "revolutionary, political and dissident, in fact human rights, legacy," the statement reads.