PRESS RELEASE

The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs regrets that Montenegro has decided to ignore the calls of the Republic of Croatia to avoid politicizing the victims of Jasenovac and not to take actions that could negatively impact our bilateral relations and Montenegro's European path.

The Republic of Croatia considers it unacceptable, inappropriate, and unnecessary to adopt a resolution whose intention is not to build a culture of remembrance and reconciliation but to instrumentalize the memory of the victims of Jasenovac for the short-term political goals of the initiators of this resolution.

It is indisputable that the motive for its adoption lies in the fact that the United Nations General Assembly initiated a resolution on the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica, which was adopted on May 23, 2024. From this, it is clear that the resolution on Jasenovac was adopted to undermine and relativize the UN resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica, which has been established by numerous judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and in the judgment of the International Court of Justice on February 26, 2007.

This action by Montenegro cannot be considered well-intentioned and neighbourly towards the Republic of Croatia nor is it in line with Montenegro's declared goal of European Union membership.

Good neighbourly relations are one of the key elements of the enlargement process as well as the stabilization and association process and one of the key criteria for assessing progress in Montenegro's accession process, according to the European Union's Negotiating Framework for Montenegro. Following the recent positive Report on the fulfilment of interim benchmarks for chapters 23 and 24 (IBAR), the Republic of Croatia expected that Montenegro would refrain from any activity that could lead to the deterioration or worsening of good neighbourly relations and that it would focus its efforts on meeting the conditions and benchmarks in the accession process, some of which are particularly important to the Republic of Croatia.

We remind that according to the EU's Common Position for Chapter 23, presented at the Intergovernmental Conference on June 26, 2024, Montenegro must show progress and results regarding the prosecution of war crimes, including establishing responsibility at high levels, resolving cases of missing persons, as well as the issue of compensation for victims and the protection of national minorities and their rights.

The Republic of Croatia expects that Montenegro will prioritize addressing the issue of establishing responsibility for crimes committed by Montenegrin citizens during the aggression against the Republic of Croatia in the 1990s. This especially includes those committed during the attack on Dubrovnik, which began on October 1, 1991, and the siege of the city that lasted until May 1992, as well as crimes committed against Croatian citizens in Montenegro, including in the Morinj camp where more than 350 Croatian citizens were detained from September 1991 to August 1992, and the issue of fair compensation for all former detainees.

Considering the true purpose of this act by the Montenegrin Assembly, which has positioned Montenegro in a way that the Republic of Croatia cannot interpret as neighbourly and is contrary to the intentions of developing friendly relations, the Republic of Croatia reserves the right to respond accordingly.

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