The meeting was attended by representatives of the councilor clubs of Democratic Montenegro (Slavka Zambelić, Nikola Samardžić), the Novi List (Miloš Konjević - President of the Municipal Assembly, Jovan Subotić, Vojislav Ilić, Mira Vujović, Jasmina Konjević, Dragana Stanišić), the Democratic Party of Socialists (Dejan Stojadinović, Nebojša Kaluđerović), the European Union (Tanja Vujičić and Dejan Radulović, coordinator of the municipal committee), the Civic Movement for Herceg Novi (Olivera Doklestić), and URE (Nikola Radman). The meeting was also attended by Nebojša Mandić, a journalist and citizen of Novi, who has been attending memorial gatherings in front of the Herceg-Novi Central Office since 2010.
"All those present supported the initiative through the discussion to submit a proposal to the Council for Proposing Names of Settlements, Streets and Squares of the Herceg Novi Municipal Assembly to erect a memorial to the victims of the 1992 deportation of refugees in front of the Security Center building in Herceg Novi, and for such an initiative to be signed by the presidents of the councilors' clubs," HRA stated.
The willingness to submit this initiative to the Council, and then to the Municipal Assembly, was expressed, in order to institutionally and permanently commemorate the victims of deportation, to show respect for the victims and their families, and for this convocation of the Assembly to demonstrate a dignified attitude towards the victims and the crime that has permanently saddened numerous families. It was also emphasized that the memorial should carry a message that unites, that is against the crime, and that sends a message to future generations that nothing like this should ever happen again.
"In order to reach a consensual solution, it has been proposed that a Working Group be formed at the level of the collegium of the President of the Assembly, which will harmonize the text that will be an integral part of the memorial," the HRA emphasizes.
HRA points out that this support represents a turning point in the years-long efforts of the victims' families and the organizations Human Rights Action (HRA), the Center for Civic Education (CCE), ANIMA and civic activist Aleksandar Saša Zeković, who since 2011 have continuously pointed out the need to provide the victims with a dignified memorial at the place from which they were illegally taken.
"During the meeting, the facts from the verdict of the Higher Court in Podgorica were presented and finally established, stating that civilians who had previously fled Bosnia and Herzegovina to Montenegro were taken from Herceg Novi, as a collection center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in an organized, illegal and forcible manner at the end of May 1992, and most of them subsequently died in the camps of the Army of Republika Srpska and at an unknown location near Bratunac," HRA states.
The meeting also presented the results of a public opinion poll in Herceg Novi from April 2024, according to which slightly more than a third of the city's residents were in favor of erecting the monument, slightly less than a third were against it, while the rest were neutral because they did not have enough information about the event.
A video recording from last year's memorial gathering in Herceg Novi was also shown, at which the mothers of the victims of the deportation, Hikmeta Prelo (mother of eighteen-year-old Amer) and Sejda Krdžalija (mother of twenty-year-old Sanin), spoke about the importance of erecting a monument for the families of the victims, whose remains have still not been found. The mothers specifically emphasized that they do not believe that Herceg Novi as a city is in any way responsible, that this could have happened in any city, but that the monument would be meaningful to them because it was there that they saw their children for the last time.
The conversation was organized within the framework of the Human Rights Action project "Together for Lasting Peace through Education, Dialogue and Memorialization", as part of the regional project "EU Support to Confidence Building in the Western Balkans", funded by the European Union and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The views expressed in this conversation are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of Human Rights Action, the European Union or UNDP, nor can they be considered their official views.
