Non-governmental organizations and civic activists strongly condemn the chanting of the name of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić at the basketball game played on Wednesday evening in Zeta, between the home team KK Vukovi Zeta and the visiting team KK Ibar Rožaje.

According to video footage and eyewitness accounts from the scene, a group of KK Vukovi supporters from Zeta chanted the name of war criminal Ratko Mladić, who was convicted, among other crimes, of genocide against the Muslim population in Srebrenica. The team at whom the chanting was directed comes from a town in northern Montenegro whose population is predominantly Muslim, that is, Bosniak.

Glorifying convicted war criminals constitutes the criminal offense of inciting hatred and intolerance, punishable by imprisonment from six months to five years. We expect the competent state prosecutor to review the footage, identify all perpetrators of this criminal offense, and prosecute everyone who may bear criminal responsibility.

Reports from the field that the perpetrators of this criminal offense were children as well are a serious alarm for our society. Such attitudes are not formed spontaneously in children, but through the messages and patterns of behavior of the adults in the environment in which they are growing up. Responsibility therefore does not lie only with the individuals in the stands, but also with parents, schools, and the wider social community, which for years has tolerated the relativization of war crimes and has failed to support the teaching of historical facts about the wars of the 1990s.

We expect the competent Higher State Prosecutor’s Office to act more decisively in response to hate speech.

In addition to the Criminal Code of Montenegro, which sanctions the incitement of national, racial, and religious hatred and intolerance, hate speech is also prohibited by the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination, the Law on Public Order and Peace, and the Law on the Prevention of Violence and Improper Conduct at Sports Events.

We demand that the police and the State Prosecutor’s Office investigate this case without delay and identify those responsible.

Lawful action by institutions in combating hate speech is necessary in order to prevent the recurrence of such incidents and to send an unequivocal warning to both parents and children that in Montenegro the glorification of war criminals and the spreading of hatred will not be tolerated.

Human Rights Action
Antifašisti Cetinja
Association Spektra
Center for Democratic Transition (CDT)
Center for Civic Education (CCE)
Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG)
Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI)
Center for the Development of Non-Governmental Organizations (CRNVO)
ANIMA – Center for Women’s and Peace Education
Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM)
Montenegrin Lawyers’ Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms (CKM)
Montenegrin PEN Center
Montenegrin Philological Society
Montenegrin LGBTIQ Association Queer Montenegro
ERA – LGBTI Equal Rights Association for the Western Balkans and Turkey
Forum for Youth and Non-Formal Education – Forum MNE
Ipso Facto
Juventas
Prima
Safe Women’s House
Media Institute
Association of History Teachers of Montenegro – HIPMONT
Dina Bajramspahić, civic activist
Paula Petričević, civic activist
Milena Bešić, civic activist