Considering the articles published on the portals of Radio-Television Nikšić, Caffe del Montenegro, Gradski portal, and Radio-Television of Montenegro on 7 March 2025, where the Director of the public institution KIC Zeta, Branko Noković, stated that “attempts to associate Pavle Bulatović’s name with war crimes represent a gross manipulation of facts“, in the general interest of seeking the truth, we would like to inform Noković and the reading public of the following:
- The Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Montenegro, Pavle Bulatović, issued an illegal order in the form of a telegram (dispatch) on 23 May 1992, to all heads of centres and departments of security to arrestall persons who arrived from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Montenegro, detain them, and return them to the territory of the Serbian Republic in B&H. This fact is confirmed by a final judgment of the Higher Court in Podgorica, Ks. 6/12, dated 22 November 2012. The judgment states on page 120: In the process, it was unquestionably determined that, executing the order of the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Montenegro, the late Pavle Bulatović, to act upon the requests of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Serbian Republic of B&H, to detain individuals who had arrived from the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Montenegro and return them to the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the accused M.M., in his capacity as Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Montenegro for Public Security, sent a telegram no. 14-101 dated 23/05/1992 to all security centres and security departments in the Republic of Montenegro, requesting that they act in accordance with the request of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Serbian Republic of B&H, to detain all individuals of Serbian nationality aged 18 to 60 years from the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina for transfer and return to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Subsequently, executing the order of the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Montenegro, the late B. P., which was in the form of a telegram concerning individuals of Muslim nationality, and acting according to telegram no. 14-101 from 23.05.1992, they carried out the identification of individuals originating from the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, detained these individuals, brought them in, and returned them to the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. After that, the authorized personnel of the Herceg Novi Security Centre, following their requests, detained and handed over individuals originating from the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who were on the territory of Montenegro, to the workers of the Secretariat of Internal Affairs and the Penitentiary Institution in Foča, as well as to the Secretariat of Internal Affairs of Srebrenica.
- Accused Milorad Ivanović, former Head of the Herceg-Novi Security Centre (CB), during the main hearing before the Higher Court in Podgorica on 6/09/2012, stated that he clearly remembers seeing Pavle Bulatović‘s signature and later reviewed the documentation, recalling that the telegram with his signature was shown to him (Judgment of the Higher Court in Podgorica, Ks. 6/12, 22/11/2012).
- Accused Radoje Radulović, former head of the State Security Service in Herceg-Novi, stated that he was shown a telegram from the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 184 dated 24/05/ 1992, signed by Pavle Bulatović. He also testified during the main hearing before the Higher Court in Podgorica on 6/09/2012, that refugees were detained by the public security authorities on the order of Pavle Bulatović (Judgment of the Higher Court in Podgorica, Ks. 6/12).
- Witness Slobodan Pejović, retired inspector of the CB Herceg-Novi, confirmed that he saw a dispatch in which it stated: “… arrest Muslims from Bosnia and Herzegovina aged 18 to 80 and hand them over to where Serbs control Bosnia.” The signature was Pavle Bulatović‘s (Judgment of the Higher Court in Podgorica, Ks. 6/12).
- Accused Milorad Šljivančanin, former police commander in Herceg-Novi, testified that when he arrived at work, he was presented with a pile of documents related to the detained individuals who were arrested over the weekend. He was told that this was done based on a dispatch from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Montenegro Podgorica, on 23/05/1992, in the evening. The telegram from 23/05/1992, was read at a meeting (25/05/1992), and was marked with 14-101. It was signed by Minister Pavle Bulatović, and the telegram was marked as strictly confidential (Judgment Ks. No. 3/09, Higher Court in Podgorica, 29/03/ 2011).
- Witness Vlastimir Stanišić, who was the Head of the Security Department (OB) in Kotor in May 1992, testified that he heard that the dispatch was signed by the late Pavle Bulatović, who at the time was the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Montenegro (Higher Court in Podgorica, Transcript from the Main Hearing in case Ks. No. 3/09, 7/10/2010).
- Vahida Isaković, a woman whose brother Enes Bičo was killed after being deported to the Foča camp, while her husband survived with permanent consequences from the deportation to that camp, testified before the Basic Court in Podgorica about a meeting with Minister Bulatović in 1992: “I addressed Pavle Bulatović because I learned that he was the direct authorizer of all those arrests and demanded that he meet with me personally. However, he could not meet with me in person and referred me to his secretary. When I was leaving, I ran into Bulatović and tried to explain to him why I had come. However, he did not turn toward me and told me that his secretary would write it down and that I would receive a written response at the address I had given in Kumbor. However, we never received that written response” (Against Forgetting – Witness Testimonies in War Crimes Trials, p. 30).
Therefore, the facts unequivocally indicate that Pavle Bulatović, Minister of Internal Affairs in the Government of Milo Đukanović, on 23 May 1992, ordered the illegal detention of civilians from Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Republic of Montenegro and their extradition to their executioners in the Serbian Republic. Noković’s claim that our accusations against Bulatović are “absurd” is merely a denial of judicially established facts and a shameful attempt to minimize Bulatović’s responsibility for the suffering of innocent people.
We also remind that the Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Graham Blewitt, stated to the media that Pavle Bulatović was under investigation by the Hague Tribunal for crimes committed in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, and that it is possible that Bulatović, who was the Minister of Defense of the FRY from 1993 to 2000, would have been included in the second round of Kosovo indictments had he not been assassinated. The first round of indictments included the President of Serbia, Slobodan Milošević, and four of his close associates (SENSE, 2/08/2000).
Branko Noković claims that KIC “Zeta,” under his leadership, preserves Montenegro’s national and cultural heritage. However, the glorification and rehabilitation of individuals responsible for war crimes is neither a cultural nor a national heritage but an attempt to justify crimes against civilians under the pretext of preserving tradition. Montenegro’s heritage consists of values of humanity and antifascism, and confronting war crimes and other atrocities is a moral obligation of Montenegrin society.
We oppose the misuse of cultural institutions to cover up responsibility for killing the innocent. Public institutions must serve the pursuit of truth and must distance themselves from those who planned, ordered, and executed crimes, rather than insulting their victims.
Human Rights Action (HRA)
ANIMA – Center for Women’s and Peace Education
Antifascists of Cetinje
Association Spektra
Centre for Civic Education (CCE/CGO)
Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM)
Center for Investigative Journalism (CIN CG)
Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI)
Center for Development of Non-Governmental Organizations (CRNVO)
Women’s Rights Center (WRC)
Montenegro LGBTIQ Association Queer Montenegro
Montenegrin Women’s Lobby
Montenegrin PEN Center
Montenegrin Committee of Lawyers for the Protection of Human Rights
Dina Bajramspahić, Civic Activist
Montenegrin Publishers’ Society
ERA – Alliance for Equal Rights of LGBTI People in the Western Balkans and Turkey
Montenegro Media Institute
Juventas
Prima
Safe Women’s House
LBTQ Women’s Association “Stana”
Association “Štrpci – Against Oblivion”
Association of History Professors of Montenegro – HIPMONT