Maslovaric: Resignation on ethical grounds would be therapeutic; Koprivica: Responsibility cannot be demanded from Šćepanović

The Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms, Siniša Bjeković, assessed that violence has become the predominant way of resolving conflicts in Montenegro.

He said this in tonight's show "Reflektor" on TV Vijesti, which focuses on two mass murders in Cetinje, on August 12, 2022 and January 1, 2025, in which a total of 23 people were killed.

The guests of the show were: Ombudsman Siniša Bjeković, psychiatrist Tea Dakić, university professor Biljana Maslovarić, and State Secretary at the Ministry of Internal Affairs Petar Koprivica.

"Each of us bears at least a fraction of some responsibility for everything that happens, participating in our daily events, in what surrounds us. For certainly the past ten years, at least while I have been in the institution I come from, I have been warning that violence has become the predominant way of resolving conflict in our country. We are all ignoring it," said the Ombudsman.

Bjeković said that he "would not draw premature conclusions about who is responsible for all that has happened."

"There seems to me to be no other way than to resolve this, at least when it comes to subjective responsibility, in a way that must analyze every bit of what happened there and of course, the responsibility must be borne by whoever is eventually found responsible," he said.

Petar Koprivica, State Secretary at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, said, regarding the mass murder on January 1, that in terms of the reaction of those responsible in that department, they "reacted to the maximum."

He said that "there is no person in Montenegro who has not been affected" by the tragedy in Cetinje.

At tonight's electronic session, the Government adopted the Information on the initiation of the procedure - a public call for the employment of 815 police officers.

Koprivica says the interest is "quite high."

"We are starting to advertise in the next few days, it will be done in certain stages, while respecting everything prescribed by law when it comes to this type of employment."

Professor Biljana Maslovarić said that state institutions, "especially those that are repressive, suddenly find a problem in citizens." "I have always believed that our resignation as citizens would be much less if you had been able to say in the first sentence - we are here for you, we are sorry for what happened. And that somehow we could all trust you, and that trust was lost long ago."

She criticized the fact that young people who participated in the protests were "associating themselves with criminals."

"You are associating me with criminals, I have no connection with DPS or the mafia... I was at a rally in front of the Ministry of Interior and the comments we heard from the minister are painful, but they also cause revolt, because that is not how you can talk to people, young people, because they continuously, every generation, tell us one thing - that things are getting worse for them."

She said that resigning on ethical grounds would be a "curative solution."

"It is clear that a person who represents an institution resigns for ethical reasons without explaining it, and that is a hero who says: 'Here, we will solve it, we will do it, let's move forward, let go of my chair now, someone else will come, it's not important'. We need that, not waiting now for an investigation to come, procedures to start... We have this first, curative solution: 'I'm running away from there because this is not right'. We need to have a sense of responsibility, not bureaucratic procedures."

Psychiatrist Tea Dakić believes that the response, at least from health institutions and health decision-makers, in the case of the mass murder in 2022, was "completely absent."

"I'm not sure that anything significant has been done at all. I know that the Cetinje team of psychiatrists and psychologists has been working hard, within their resources and capabilities, but that is not enough. These are things that require a significant systemic response, in which there is no 'us and them', 'yours and ours'... We are not necessarily depressed, but we are traumatized. This is something that is repeated for small Montenegro, in a very short period of time, in a small town and a small community. I don't think there is a person who is not disturbed, in fear, uncertainty and who is not waiting for what will happen next."

He says that Montenegrin society is "deeply frustrated and divided."

"We relativize violence in the sense that we are not okay with something happening to us, but we are okay with it happening to someone who is not us. We cannot have the same acts being punishable for Marko and not for Janko. We cannot allow people who report violence and people who threaten to repeat the crime in Cetinje to take us lightly, that is unacceptable."

"Cetinje must not be left alone"

Bjeković said that "Cetinje must not be left alone."

"If we are willing to mention our solidarity, humanity, heroism so many times... is it possible that we don't have enough empathy that we all, without any distinction, don't reach out to these people and see how it can be done?"

Bjeković said he was "humanly disappointed" that such a tragedy "has produced different thinking, about what happened, on the one hand, and on the other hand, about our further behavior in this entire situation."

"The abuses we have seen on various portals, the stigmatization of the citizens of Cetinje, and especially the town of Cetinje, completely throws into despair, not Cetinje, but any town in Montenegro."

Dakić said that claims that there are more certain mental disorders in Cetinje than in other areas are "absurd".

"The citizens of Cetinje are neither healthier nor sicker than any other average citizen of Montenegro. It is not a 'cursed' city, but a city of freedom, culture and a rare anti-war city, at a time when that was extremely unpopular. It is a community that really knows how to be solidary and cohesive."

Koprivica: Protests are good, when politics doesn't get involved

Koprivica said that the students' demands regarding the possession of weapons have "actually already been adopted."

He answered affirmatively to psychiatrist Dakić's question about whether the regulations would stipulate that a house be searched and weapons seized from a person who has been reported for violent behavior.

He said that "protests are good, that they always lead to raising awareness in society, when politics does not enter into them."

"I support and welcome that, and requests that are common sense are very good. Laws should perhaps be changed more often, if they reflect certain needs of society."

Koprivica believes that responsibility cannot be sought from the acting director of the Police Administration, Lazar Šćepanović, "who has only been there for 20 days", and not from "someone who has been there during many previous tragic events, and who is the first to lead when someone else needs to be called out".

When asked by the show's editor and host Aleksandra Mudreša who he was referring to, he said that he did not want to "enter the political field", and when asked if he was referring to the mayor of Cetinje, Nikola Đurašković, he said: "You may have given some answer."

"By injecting politics, by inserting it into this protest, we have desecrated the essence of the protest, which is to allow people to freely express their views... Let them demand resignations, but let it be as objective as possible, if we are going to the level of resignations, so as not to reduce it to a political level, which I think it has just been reduced to," said the State Secretary.

"Šaranović gave full support to Marko and Mašan's laws"

When asked what stage the "Marko and Mašan Law" has reached and what it would prescribe, Koprivica said that he knew that Minister Danilo Šaranović "gave full support to that law."

The request for the adoption of this law calls for psychological and psychiatric expert reports, that someone who exhibits or has exhibited physical or psychological violence cannot carry a weapon, that a medical certificate required for a permit to carry a weapon cannot be issued without a medical history, that the selected doctor has records of which of his patients carry weapons, and that he is obliged, upon noticing changes in behavior, to notify the police, who would take the weapon away from that patient...

"These are precisely the things that have the support of the minister and he has given a kind of promise that he will comply with that part. The Law on Weapons is in that direction and a good part of those provisions foresee more rigorous measures that a law should have, in order to try to prevent something like this from happening again," said Koprivica.

"Prevent division and hatred"

At the end of the show, Maslovarić said that "there is a lack of leaders with clean hands and faces," who should "be a beacon of how to live, work, speak publicly, and love people in a way that makes us feel responsible for what we do."

"We need to return to what it is through the education system, which is values, and talk about it constantly."

Dakić said that they have the support and promise of the Ministry of Health that they will make an effort to connect with various sectors, including education, and that "significant work will be done on systematically improving the current situation, healing the community and preventing future, such hugely tragic events of violence."

Koprivica said that 2 police officers have been deployed in Cetinje every day since January 60. "The Ministry of the Interior has initiated a series of steps to prevent something like this from ever happening again."

He agreed with his interlocutors that "we can only overcome this together." "There is no room for divisions, bad politics, only through synergy, respect and listening to those on the other side can we avoid a new tragedy."

Bjeković said that the institution of the Protector will have to step up its preventive work. He said that divisions and hatred "which are more than obvious" must be prevented. Every conflict is mainly an expression of what we call hatred. Social cohesion cannot exist without empathy.

738 firearms surrendered since the beginning of the year

The State Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior stated that from January 2 until this morning, 738 firearms, 23.000 pieces of ammunition, 69 hand grenades and several parts of weapons and explosive devices were voluntarily surrendered.

He points out that there is no statistical data on how many weapons are in illegal possession.

"We have had more voluntary weapon returns in 12 days than in almost a large period last year," Koprivica pointed out.