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Bosnia: Courage Award for Montenegro Officer
| 08 February 2010 |
The Dusko Kondor Civil Courage Award will be given on February 23 in Sarajevo to Slobodan Pejovic, a crucial witness to the deportation of Bosnian refugees from Montenegro into the custody of Republika Srpska Armed Forces.
In 1992, during the wars in the former Yugoslavia, Pejovic was a police officer in Montenegro. Years after the war, he told his story of the deportations to investigative journalist Seki Radoncic.
The trial against nine men indicted for their role in the deportations, four of whom are currently in detention and five of whom are still on the run, started on November 26, 2009, in Podgorica. Pejovic was not called to be a witness.
In December the trial was adjourned and it will likely continue on April 26, when victims and their families will be called to testify.
According to the available data, from May 15, 1992 to June 6, 1992, Montenegrin police arrested a number of Bosnian citizens who found themselves on Montenegrin territory as refugees. The police then deported the refugees to Republika Srpska, into the custody of the authorities there.
The State Prosecutor has charged the men who allegedly carried out the orders of the former Montenegrin interior minister, the late Pavle Bulatovic, and forcibly resettled 79 persons and handed them over to Republika Srpska Internal Affairs Secretariats in Sokolac, Srebrenica and Foca, as well as the Correctional Facility in Foca.
Most of the refugees were later killed and only some of their bodies have since been found.
Montenegro's state prosecutor indicted Bosko Bojovic, former assistant interior minister for state security issues; Milislav Markovic, former assistant interior minister for public security; Radoje Radunovic, head of security with the State Security Service in Herceg Novi; Dusko Bakrac, operations officer in the same sector; Bozidar Stojovic, a sector chief of the state security service in Ulcinj; Milorad Ivanovic, chief of the security centre in Herceg Novi; Milorad Sljivancanin, police chief in Herceg Novi; Branko Bujic, head of the security centre in Bar and Sreten Glendza, chief of security in Ulcinj.
Journalist Seki Radoncic wrote a book on the deportations and the case, entitled Kobna sloboda, or “Fatal Freedom”.
Last fall, Slobodan Pejovic received several death threats and a number of human rights organisations expressed concern for his safety. In the past, according to those organisations, he was a victim of assault more than 10 times.
As the trial for those responsible for carrying out the deportations has been unfolding, Prelevic Law Firm from Montenegro has filed 42 claims against the Montengrin state on behalf of 200 family members of 33 deportees. The first claim was filed on December 6, 2004. Trials are still ongoing.
The Dusko Kondor Civil Courage Award was established in 2008 to commemorate Dusko Kondor, a former high school teacher and human rights activist from Bijeljina who was assassinated in his home in 2007.
The award is given with the support of the Norwegian government.
2010-02-08 20:02:13