WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS
The activities of students from the group “Kamo śutra” after the tragedy in Cetinje on January 1st will enter their sixth week tomorrow.
During that time, the aforementioned organization in Podgorica organized nine gatherings, three of which were mass protest rallies, with two in Cetinje.
In the meantime, traffic blockades in the capital have motivated citizens from a number of municipalities to support their activities by doing the same in their own places.
Although the blockades, which we have been following from last Saturday until the day before yesterday, do not by their nature imply a particularly large number of people, those who are constant at them will point out that the number is not decreasing. On the contrary – it seems that the day before yesterday there were perhaps the largest gatherings, with two blockades taking place in Podgorica in parallel.
The one they address mostly avoids the topic
All this time, however, the one to whom the students predominantly address their demands has mostly avoided the topic. And when the time comes for him to directly answer the question about the protests, Prime Minister Milojko Spajić will generally not say anything concrete except that the responsibility is on the table, that he is evaluating and analyzing, and even that the Government is on the same side as the students.
Spajić has not once directly stated whether he will dismiss Minister Danilo Šaranović and Deputy Prime Minister Aleksa Bečić. He has not even stated his opinion on the demands of the Cetinje city parliament, where all the councilors, except for the Democrats, have requested the dismissal of the director of the Police Administration, as well as international expertise on everything that happened in the capital on January 1.
However, one thing is certain - six weeks later, it is clear that there is still no one in Montenegro who is ready to take responsibility after the tragedy in Cetinje.
“We are ready to go all the way”
However, in the meantime, the students are not giving up either. They announced that they would reveal their next actions tomorrow.
“We are ready to go all the way. We are ready for any kind of civil disobedience until all our demands are met,” one of the members of the student organization, Itana Dragojević, told Pobjeda.
For weeks, some authorities have been trying, apparently unsuccessfully, to ‘connect’ the organizers with opposition parties, even individuals suspected of criminal offenses. Students were targeted, and disinformation was not lacking in order to discredit them. Everything was accompanied by almost chorus-like, apparently coordinated attacks by ‘bots’ on social networks. In addition, the organizers have faced and are facing threats.
Support is arriving, students decide on the further course, and could also - Spajić
However, there was silence on all this from the University of Montenegro itself. Until this week. Now there is already the first faculty that supported the demands of the group “Kamo śutra”. The council of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts did this, so it remains to be seen whether another unit of the University of Montenegro will step forward in the coming weeks.
On Friday, representatives of a number of non-governmental organizations also expressed their support, not only for the demands, but also for the students themselves.
Among the participants in the blockades in recent days, many ideas could be heard in informal conversations about what should be done next. However, the students will decide what course the activities will take.
Admittedly, they are not the only ones who can decide on the further fate of the protest. Spajić himself can do it – as of tomorrow. On his part, a short press conference seems to be sufficient. But, for now, such a scenario is not in sight.
