On this day 34 years ago, Admiral of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), Vladimir Barović, took his own life in protest against the order of the supreme command of the JNA High Command to shell coastal towns in Croatia from the island of Vis in 1991. He wrote that he had chosen an honourable death “because Montenegrins cannot destroy a people who have done them no harm”.
Although his act is an exceptional example of humanity, too little is known about him in Montenegro. Our children do not learn about him, his name is not in history textbooks, and there is no memorial in his honour.
Barović was posthumously decorated in 2016 by the President of Montenegro Filip Vujanović, in 2023 he was proclaimed an honorary citizen of the City of Pula, and in 2022 on the island of Vis in Croatia a memorial plaque was unveiled with a quotation from his farewell letter: “There will be no destruction here as long as I am commander, and if I am nevertheless forced to order destruction, I will no longer be here. Montenegrins cannot fight and destroy a people who have done them no harm”.
The tragic act of Admiral Barović reminds us that opposing madness and injustice is the duty of every individual, then and now, regardless of whether they are officials or civilians. After his death, the unreasonable order to shell Dalmatian towns was abandoned.
To this day, no official initiative has been launched to permanently commemorate Barović with a memorial in Montenegro. Human Rights Action (HRA) and the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) have today submitted an initiative to the Council for Naming Streets of the Capital City for a street to be named after Admiral Vladimir Barović.
It is very important that his name and personal sacrifice in defence of humanity are preserved from oblivion through the tribute he deserves. Such a memorial should also remain as a lasting warning of the kind of war from which Montenegro must be safeguarded.
Human Rights Action (HRA)
Centre for Civic Education (CCE)