Montenegrin Police use force against the refugees

On the 10th of July 2002 before 9.00 in the morning over 50 policemen from the Montenegrin special forces police unit gathered in front of the refugee camp in Kamenovo (close to Budva) in an attempt to move Serbian refugees from Kosovo and Metohija that have been sheltered here out of their homes by force. Several times in the past year the authorities tried to move refugees out of their temporary homes but the brutality displayed by the police today was unprecedented.

Shortly after 9.00 in the morning police eliminated all journalists from site and moved in using batons and their heavy army boots against the terrified and unarmed refugees. The first victim was Mr. Djuro Kentera, the rightful owner of the land on which the refugee camp is situated and a local resident, who got badly beaten up and arrested because he tried to reason with the police commander asking him to stop the attack. Next victim was a refugee Mr. Nenad Dzeferdanovic who got severely injured and ended up in the hospital after he was also arrested. The police apparently used force also against the older women and children and the violence continued until the moment when Mrs. Milena Radevic (whose son and husband were killed by UCK in Kosovo) poured gasoline all over her body threatening to burn herself alive unless the police backed off. The action was stopped only then. Afterwards we also found out that two more women were badly beaten up during the attack and that one of them was lying in the hospital in coma.

Problem arose few years ago when the property in Kamenovo, that originally belonged to “The Workers Syndicate” from Kosovo and Metohija, changed its owner under dubious circumstances and became private property. Regardless of the fact that the Police say they formally acted upon a court order, unprecedented brutality and cruelty that officers displayed reminded us very much of the old ways and methods used during the communist times.

Milanka Terzic who also ended up in the ambulance said: “The whole thing was really terrifying. They didn’t seem to be bothered at all by the fact that most of us are women and children. Children’s tears didn’t seem to stop them. After all the terrible things that happened to us in Kosovo and Metohija do we deserve to be treated like this in Montenegro.”

Immediately after the police left His Eminence Amfilohije, Orthodox Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, arrived at the scene, comforted the refugees saying that what has happened presents great shame for Montenegrin Government and the whole Republic. Metropolitan Amfilohije also said: “My responsibility as a Christian and an Orthodox bishop is to report this grave and indeed shameful injustice. These poor and terrified people who have already been treated very badly in the past, persecuted and driven out of their homes by Albanian terorists are still suffering. They are not laying claim to somebody else’s property. What they want is either to return to their homes in Kosovo and Metohija or get a place where they can live and raise their children in peace. This is what local and international organizations together with the Montenegrin authorities should try and provide for them”

Press service of the Orthodox Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral

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