.: Freedom House Criticizes Montenegro's War Trials

Thursday, June 07, 2012

Freedom House Criticizes Montenegro's War Trials

The Montenegrin judiciary is reluctant to objectively process war crimes and top officials are not investigated, according to a Freedom House report.

Milena Milosevic

BIRN

Podgorica

The report on Montenegro for 2011 is part of a wider comparative study conducted on “nations in transit” and was issued on Wednesday by Freedom House, a US based NGO.

Overall, Montenegro is classified as a semi-consolidated democracy. The report cites corruption, lack of media independence and national democratic governance as the most troubled areas.

Montenegrin judiciary also got the low grade, because there is no clear evidence that new judicial reforms are effectively implemented.

Although it notes some progress in judicial independence, the report is critical of the war crime trials in the country.

It emphasized that in every case tried in 2010 and early 2011, subordinates, not commanders, were indicted.

“Furthermore, the state prosecution office failed to investigate and prosecute the chain of command,” read the report.

Freedom House also provided a brief overview of four war crime trials that were ongoing when the report was prepared, noting that more than 20 years after some of the war crimes occurred, there is no final verdict.

In the meantime, however, the Appellate Court confirmed in April the acquittal of seven former police and Yugoslav army officers charged with inhumane treatment and torture of ethnic Bosniaks and Muslims in Bukovica, Montenegro during the Bosnian war.

The indictees were acquitted because the “inhumane treatment” was criminalized in Montenegrin law in 2003, ten years after the alleged events in Bukovica. There is no right to appeal the court's decision.

The report also considers it unlikely that that top officials will ever be charged or indicted for war crimes. According to Freedom House, this reflects the reluctance of the Montenegrin judiciary to process war crimes cases objectively.

Freedom House is a US-based non-governmental organization, which monitors governments around the world and advocates for democracy and human rights.

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New York Times article published May 21, 1911

"ALBANIAN JOAN OF ARC: Handsome Heroine Takes Father's Place and Vanquishes Turks" – Cetinja, May 21, 1911 - A young girl, whose first name corresponds to that of the given name of the Maid of Orleans, is now being sung in the songs of the Montenegrin bards in the inns and coffee houses in Podgorica. When at the battle of Vranje last week, her father, the hereditary commander of his clan, fell, she immediately stepped to his place and led the Martinajs to victory against the Turks. Aside from the romantic phase of the affair, for Janitza Martinaj (Tringa e Grudes) is very beautiful, the battle is important as showing that the Montenegrins on the frontier had joined with the Albanians. According to a person who is well acquainted with her, this new Joan of Arc is “a tall, handsome, well-developed young woman. All the Albanian women are brave, and are trained from their girlhood to the use of firearms, and in times of war, as there are no mules, they carry the provisions and ammunition for their soldiers and go into the firing line to distribute them.” “And are sometimes killed?” “Yes, often that happens.” Janitza would probably have carried a Martini rifle; or, as many of the Marininis were collected last year by the Turks, her weapon may perhaps have been one of the old-fashioned Albanian rifles, which are handsomely decorated with silver and have very long, narrow barrels. Shooting is almost the only amusement of the young men and women in Albania. Both boys and girls learn to shoot when they are 12 years old. At weddings the parties amuse themselves by dancing and shooting: at christenings shootings is again the principal amusement – firing at large targets for some little prize – and at festivals there is shooting all day long. It’s one of the great difficulties that Turks have to contend with, for it is part of the national life; the people use their rifles by day and sleep with them by their side by night. The custom has grown up with the prevailing insecurity from vendettas at home and border troubles abroad. Physically, the Albanians are the finest race in Europe. Their women are handsome, with dark hair, though their eyes are sometimes gray. To see them walk is a delight. We like to see the ballet in Servia. The first time I saw the Albanians walk it gave me just the same pleasure. Their movements are so graceful, elegance and strength together. Yes, they are a very fine and very gifted race. They are like the Scots in the 17th century, and they will be by and by the finest race, intellectually as well as physically, in the Balkans. If you go to Constantinople you will find that many of the finest men, not only soldiers but also statesmen are Albanians. Their fault, due to their present degree of civilization, is that they cannot grasp the idea of State. The clan is their highest organization; they are unable to see the importance of combining the clan with the higher organization of making a state. But that will come.

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Thursday, June 07, 2012

Freedom House Criticizes Montenegro's War Trials

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