Around 100 pro-Serbian activists in Montenegro gathered last night in front of the government building in Podgorica to protest the country's support for the resolution , declaring the International Day of Commemoration of the Genocide in Srebrenica, reported the HINA agency, quoted by BTA.
The resolution drafted by Germany and Rwanda – two countries marked by other cases of genocide in the 20th century, was adopted yesterday in the UN General Assembly with 84 votes “for“, 19 “against“ and 68 “abstained”. According to information from "Balkan Insight" among those who voted "against" are Belarus, China, Cuba, Hungary, Russia and Serbia.
The document calls for July 11 to be declared an International Day of Remembrance for the genocide committed in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in 1995, and condemns genocide denial and glorification of war criminals. The countries that drafted the resolution said that this was necessary so that the massacre would not be denied or forgotten.
Montenegro was among the countries that supported the resolution. The representatives of Podgorica submitted an amendment to the text emphasizing that guilt for the genocide was individual and could not be attributed to any ethnic or religious group, nor to any community as a whole. According to the government of Montenegro, this is an additional contribution to regional reconciliation and good relations between Serbs, Bosnian Muslims and all other peoples of the Balkans.
Protesters last night in Podgorica waved the flags of Serbia, the Kingdom of Montenegro and Russia and chanted slogans in support of convicted war criminal General Ratko Mladic and Russia. Among the chants, the word “treason” could be heard, notes HINA.
Before the adoption of the resolution, one of the organizers of the protest - Zdravko Nišavich, chairman of the non-governmental organization “Miholski sbor“, which is close to the Serbian Orthodox Church, said that if the resolution is adopted, on Friday (today) it will be organized an even bigger protest in front of the government building in Podgorica.
„We Serbs are not a genocidal people, we are not people who would hurt someone,” he declared. According to him, the Montenegrin vote in support of the resolution is a dangerous act.
„We are fully aware of what our fellow Bosniaks and Muslims have gone through and have the deepest respect for the victims of Srebrenica. All victims deserve justice. As representatives of the Serbian people, we will not allow the crimes in Srebrenica to be characterized as genocide, because genocide is a systematic plan to exterminate an entire people, Zdravko Nišavich said, quoted by HINA.
On July 11, 1995, the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica was captured by Bosnian Serb forces under the command of Gen. Ratko Mladic. Bosnian Serbs massacred 8,000 Muslims – men and boys located in an enclave declared a security area by the United Nations.
HINA agency notes that during last night's protest in the center of the Montenegrin capital, a large number of riot police were deployed. A similar protest was also held on Wednesday.
After Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic announced that the country would support the resolution on Srebrenica, the pro-Serbian and pro-Russian coalition "For the Future of Montenegro", led by the Speaker of the Montenegrin Parliament Andrija Mandić, submitted to the legislature a resolution on the concentration Jasenovac camp. This resolution condemned the crimes committed in the camp by Croatia against Serbs, Roma and Jews during World War II.
The Jasenovac death camp system was established in August 1941. The camp was located 60 km from Zagreb, on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia. Jasenovac was called "Balkan Oświęcim". About 700 thousand people died there - Jews, Serbs, Roma.
Croatia sent a note of protest to Montenegro, urging it not to use the Jasenovac victims for political purposes and warning that if the resolution is passed by the Montenegrin parliament, it could delay Montenegro's path to EU membership.
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