Monument to war criminal Pavle Đurišić still missing one year later

Non-governmental organizations and civil society activists remind the public that one year has passed since the illegal installation of a monument to Chetnik commander Pavle Đurišić in Gornje Zaostro, near Berane, a notorious war criminal, collaborator with the Nazis and the Ustaše, who was also decorated by Adolf Hitler. Despite this, the monument remains beyond the reach of Montenegro’s investigative and judicial authorities.

- One year later, the police and prosecution authorities in Montenegro still do not know the whereabouts of the two-meter-high bronze monument, weighing several hundred kilograms, which constitutes evidence in a criminal case. After being unlawfully erected, it was removed the same day and taken to a village church, then transferred to the residence of the Đurđevi Stupovi Monastery of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC). Since October 2025, according to official information, its location has remained unknown to the competent state authorities. The police failed to locate it even after conducting two searches of the monastery premises in October and November of last year, and since then the public has not been informed of any measures taken to enforce the court order for its temporary seizure - the joint statement by civil society activists and representatives of non-governmental organizations reads.

As they point out, this case exposes not only weaknesses in the security system but also a profound institutional crisis within the state. The erection of a bronze monument to a convicted war criminal was not a spontaneous act by an individual but an organized political and logistical operation that required commissioning, financing, production, international transport, site preparation, and a public unveiling ceremony attended by senior representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

- The fact that the competent authorities have failed to determine who was behind the entire operation speaks not only to shortcomings in the work of the police and the National Security Agency, but also raises questions about their actual capacity - or political will - to protect the constitutional order and the public interest. Under such circumstances, the rehabilitation of war criminals ceases to be an isolated incident and becomes a pattern of conduct through which the limits of the state are tested and historical revisionism normalized. Particularly concerning is the absence of parliamentary oversight, as even the Parliamentary Committee on Security and Defence has not demanded political or institutional accountability for an event bearing the hallmarks of an organized action against Montenegro’s constitutional values. The only person prosecuted was the owner of the land on which the monument was erected, while the organizers, financiers, and logistical network remain untouched, creating the impression that the state has not merely failed, but has accepted that such an act should remain without real consequences – they stated.

The signatories are particularly concerned by the conduct of the judiciary.

- The Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Berane needed three months and five rejected motions before it was able to obtain a court order for the temporary seizure of the monument, as Judge Dubravka Popović of the Basic Court in Berane found a new reason to reject each request. By the time the order was finally issued, the monument had already been moved to an unknown location, while Metropolitan Metodije of the Budimlja-Nikšić Diocese, who unveiled the monument and publicly declared that it would be kept in the church, has faced no consequences whatsoever – they highlighted.

They recall that they had warned of such an outcome even before the monument was erected, as well as immediately afterwards.

- As early as May 2025, seven non-governmental organizations warned Supreme State Prosecutor Milorad Marković about the increasingly frequent glorification of Pavle Đurišić and the Chetnik movement. In August of the same year, we called for the immediate removal of the monument and the establishment of accountability. The institutional response was delayed, inadequate, and ultimately produced no results - the statement says.

One year later, the signatories warn, the monument has still not been confiscated, those who ordered its construction have not been identified, and the attacks on photojournalists Boris Pejović (Vijesti) and Stevo Vasiljević (Pobjeda), committed on 8 August 2025, have not resulted in an adequate judicial outcome. The Ministry of the Interior’s Internal Control Department has not investigated why the police failed to intervene during the attacks on the photojournalists.

Montenegro, which aspires to become the next member state of the European Union, cannot and must not be a country where the erection of a monument to a war criminal responsible for the killing of at least 8,000 Muslim civilians - women, children, and elderly people - is not prevented in a timely manner, and where that monument can then be successfully concealed from the competent institutions for an entire year.

- We call on the Police Directorate to urgently determine the location of the monument, enforce the court order for its temporary seizure, and inform the public of all measures taken to date toward that end. We expect the Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office to ensure that the investigation includes those who commissioned, financed, and organized the installation of the monument, as well as the manner in which it was brought into Montenegro. We also expect the competent prosecution offices to promptly conclude proceedings concerning its relocation and the public glorification of the Chetnik movement, to recognize these acts as the criminal offence of inciting and promoting hatred, as we have previously requested, and to inform the public of the outcome - the statement concludes.

The signatories also call on the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms (Ombudsman) to decide as soon as possible on the complaint submitted nearly eight months ago, on 25 November 2025, concerning hate speech manifested through the glorification of Pavle Đurišić by the erection of the monument and the singing of celebratory songs in public venues.

Daliborka Uljarević, Centre for Civic Education (CCE)

Tea Gorjanc Prelević, Human Rights Action (HRA)

Ervina Dabižinović, Centre for Women’s and Peace Education ANIMA

Miloš Vukanović, Association of History Teachers of Montenegro (HIPMONT)

Filip Kuzman, Anti-Fascists of Cetinje

Velija Murić, Montenegrin Committee of Lawyers for the Protection of Human Rights

Maja Raičević, Women’s Rights Centre (WRC)

Milica Kovačević, Centre for Democratic Transition (CDT)

Jovana Marović, civil society activist

Dina Bajramspahić, civil society activist