WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
Choose language:
SOURCE:ANTENA M- AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS
Exactly on time at 5:26 p.m., as announced by the informal student group "Kamo śutra", the blockade of Blaž Jovanović Bridge in Podgorica began.
The blockade lasted until 6:30 p.m.
The student group "Kamo śutra" decided on this form of protest after Prime Minister Milojko Spajić's response to the demands they had made to him.
After the beginning of the blockade of Blažov Most on behalf of the student group "Kamo śutra" Marko Vukčević read a letter addressed to Prime Minister Milojko Spajić, which states:
"Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
We have carefully read your response that you sent us on January 31, 2025, which refers to the demands made at the protests held during January, and we hereby send you our conclusions.
On January 31, our group was in Cetinje to pay tribute to the victims of the crime that occurred exactly a month ago. You were allegedly at the market.
In Cetinje, we were with the relatives of the victims of both crimes. The feeling of pain that overwhelmed us at this gathering turned into anger today. Therefore, we have decided to continue with the blockades that you can expect until you fulfill our demands.
It is true that resignation is a moral act, but where is the responsibility for the crime that happened? Is the conduct of the authorities on January 1, 2025 being investigated? Have any shortcomings been identified to date? If not, can you claim that there were none? Who will be held accountable for the fact that nothing was done after the crime that occurred in Medovina in 2022 to prevent such a crime from happening again? Who will be held accountable for the death of thirteen people in a city with an area of 910 km2? When do you plan to conduct performance evaluations? Wasn't the crime that occurred on January 1, 2025 a sufficient reason to start the evaluation? We firmly believe that it was. That is why resignations are no longer our demand. Our demand is the dismissal of the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Deputy Prime Minister for Security and Defense.
We are not asking for declarative changes to the system. Among other things, we are asking for a system in which certain functions are based on accountability, which is one of the principles of democratic, legitimate rule.
When it comes to more timely and proactive action by the competent institutions on the issue of weapons possession, we will submit all our proposals by the deadline for submitting suggestions (February 24). We must note that our request to issue a weapon possession permit for a year was not even mentioned in your response.
The response to the request to reform the system of functioning of police structures cannot be just the employment of more police officers. Reforming the system of functioning means regular training for existing officers and improving their working conditions.
When it comes to the request to introduce civic education as a mandatory subject in all primary and secondary schools, we particularly insisted on studying the anti-war past, and studying examples of civil disobedience during the militarization of Montenegro. Is such a thing foreseen in the Education Strategy plan for 2025 - 2035? Even more importantly, citizens need to know whether and when exactly civic education will be introduced in schools again.
When it comes to the fifth request, improving the institutional approach to mental health care, everything listed in your response is significant, but in this case too there was no clear response to our requests. The creation of a manual for crisis situations was not mentioned, nor was the possibility of opening a psychological counseling center in the north. The legitimacy of these, as well as other requests related to mental health, was confirmed by the Minister of Health, Vojislav Šimun, who on January 30, 2025, at a student forum held at the Faculty of Medicine, claimed that he was ready to meet them, and that he had told you the same. Why, then, the next day, there is not a word about it in your statement?
Today, while we are blocking the Blaža Jovanović Bridge, a protest is also taking place in Zagreb, while our colleagues in Novi Sad are blocking three bridges. One of those three bridges is the Žeželj Bridge, designed by engineer Branko Žeželj, the same man who designed the Blaža Jovanović Bridge. From all these locations, a clear message is being sent to all leaders of the region. The message is that young people are ready to fight for their ideas and that we will not accept that our demands are answered in a political and superficial manner.
The call for students to A large number of citizens accepted to join. After reading the letter addressed to Prime Minister Spajić, citizens, together with students, chanted: "Resignation, resignation" and called out the armchair politicians.
