Human Rights Action (HRA), the Centre for Civic Education (CCE), and ANIMA – Centre for Women’s and Peace Education, invite you to a memorial gathering on Monday, 25 May 2026, at noon, in front of the Herceg Novi Security Centre, to mark the anniversary of the war crime of the Deportation of Bosnian-Herzegovinian refugees from Montenegro in 1992.
We are organizing this gathering as an expression of the conscience of Montenegrin society, in memory of the victims of the crime, and in support of their families. For years, we have been advocating for the punishment of those responsible for this crime, as well as for the erection of a monument to the victims and for the state to establish 25 May as the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Deportation Crime. We will continue to do so this year as well.
This is the twenty-second year that civil society has organized this memorial gathering, and the seventeenth year it is being held in front of the Police Administration building in Herceg Novi, from where the majority of the refugees were forcibly taken and handed over to the Army of the Serb Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to available official documents, in May and June 1992, the Montenegrin police unlawfully arrested at least 66 Muslim-Bosniaks from Bosnia and Herzegovina (or persons of presumed Muslim nationality) who had fled to Montenegro from the war in BiH, and subsequently handed them over to the hostile Army of the Serb Republic in BiH, which killed the vast majority of them. Only twelve survived extradition to concentration camps. Additionally, 33 Serbs and three Croats were deported from Herceg Novi, but it is not known that any of them perished as a result of the deportation. The Croats were released immediately, as was a significant number of Serbs, who were not even mobilized.
According to data compiled by Šeki Radončić, a researcher of this war crime, many more refugees were deported; in his book Fatal Freedom, he cites a figure of 143 deported refugees, 105 of whom were Bosniaks.
On 25 May 1992, a group of arrested refugees was sent by bus from the collection center in Herceg Novi to the Foča Penal-Correctional Facility (KPD Foča), which already bore all the characteristics of a concentration camp for the non-Serb population (a fact established by the judgment of the Hague Tribunal against the camp commander, Milorad Krnojelac). Two days later, on 27 May 1992, another group of arrested refugees from Herceg Novi was transported by bus to the territory of the Republika Srpska “where they were intended to join a group of Muslims to be exchanged for captured Serb territorial defense fighters.” All the Bosniaks were killed in the vicinity of Bratunac.
In 2008, following a four-year trial, Montenegro paid damages based on a court settlement to 200 members of the victims’ families due to the unlawful actions of the Montenegrin police which led to tragic consequences. That they were unlawfully arrested and extradited as hostages was also established by a final criminal verdict in Montenegro, as well as by the Hague Tribunal’s judgment in the Krnojelac case (the Foča camp commander). However, in the criminal proceedings conducted in Montenegro, all the defendants were acquitted because the court arbitrarily introduced a requirement that the accused “had to belong to an organization of a party to the conflict or act in the service of a party to the conflict to be held responsible for a war crime,” while concluding that Montenegro was not a party to the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that the accused did not act in the service of Bosnian Serbs, which contradicts the established facts (Judgment Ks. 6/12).
In 2025, the victims of the Deportation were recognized as civilian victims of war through amendments to the Law on Veteran and Disability Protection. The Government of Montenegro also adopted a decision to pay a one-time compensation of 100,000 euros to the family of Osmo Bajrović, a victim of this crime, whose wife and children are Montenegrin citizens. This act represents an important step towards acknowledging responsibility and rectifying a long-standing injustice.
We remind you that fourteen years ago, in 2011, HRA, CCE, ANIMA, and the then-member of the Council for Civic Control of Police Work, Aleksandar Saša Zeković, submitted three initiatives: to declare a Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the 1992 Refugee Deportation Crime; to erect a memorial to the victims of the 1992 refugee deportation in front of the Police Administration building in Herceg Novi, thereby supporting the wishes of the victims’ families; and for the Montenegrin police to issue an apology for the unlawful arrest and extradition of refugees to the hostile Army of the Serb Republic of BiH. We have been repeating these initiatives for years.
Last year, on the occasion of marking 33 years since the Deportation, a meeting was held for the first time with the President of the Municipality of Herceg Novi, Stevan Katić, and the President of the Municipal Assembly, Miloš Konjević, attended by the victims’ families, as well as representatives of HRA, CCE, and ANIMA. On that occasion, the representatives of the Municipality of Herceg Novi expressed their readiness to support the initiative to erect a memorial to the victims of the refugee deportation. This year, on 25 April, a meeting was organized with the councillors of the Herceg Novi Municipal Assembly from the Democratic Montenegro, Novska Lista, Democratic Party of Socialists, European Alliance, Citizens’ Movement for Herceg Novi “Idemooo”, and the United Reform Action (URA) Citizens’ Movement, as well as the Minister of Culture and Media, Tamara Vujović. Readiness was emphasized by the presidents of the councillor clubs to support the initiative and forward it to the Municipal Assembly of Herceg Novi, in order to permanently and institutionally commemorate the victims and express reverence for those who perished. It was also proposed to form a Working Group at the level of the Collegium of the President of the Municipal Assembly to harmonize the text for the future memorial.
The third initiative is the only one that has been officially accepted and implemented, when in 2022, during the memorial gathering in Herceg Novi marking the thirtieth anniversary of the crime, the Director of the Police Administration, Zoran Brđanin, and the Minister of Interior, Filip Adžić, issued a public apology to the victims and their families for the actions of the Montenegrin police. Additionally, in August 2023, the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, extended an apology for this crime on behalf of Montenegro during a meeting with Alen Bajrović,the son of the deportation victim Osmo Bajrović, and representatives of HRA, CCE, and ANIMA.
We call upon the media and the citizens of Herceg Novi to join us at the memorial gathering on Monday, at noon, in front of the Security Centre in Herceg Novi. Let us extend our hands to the families of the victims and support the erection of a monument to the innocently perished!
Human Rights Action (HRA)
Centre for Civic Education (CCE)
ANIMA – Centre for Women’s and Peace Education