Speech of President Krivokapić:

“Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed ministers, esteemed colleagues members of the Parliament,

There are two decades of memories, memories of courage and of deep abysses of human soul.  Of course, when we face the time, two decades are a lot for our human lives, and for a memory maybe even longer. However, a memory has the strength to the extent we can turn it into creation, into creation of time which will be a dam for the evil time never to return.  

The downfall of soul and darkness of humanity was what marked the ‘90s of the 20th century.  The 21st century is becoming more aware of what happened two decades ago.  It is becoming aware that war is never born in the souls of ordinary people.  War is always the idea of those who lead the people, war is always the idea of the elite to protect its authority, war is always the idea of the elite to achieve power. And even if we manage not to turn memory into responsibility, to build the dams into our education, into our learning of history, into our learning of literature, then, depending on time, we will all be people victims and people on whose behalf crimes are committed.  

Only with the ability to prevent the elite in doing that through responsibility will we not be people victims nor people on whose behalf crimes are committed. And that burden is upon each of our peoples.  Everyone can find a period in history when they were a victim or when evil was done on their behalf.  Let us find that history of people for each of us when we were a dam to crimes, when we were a dam to injustice, and when we were all living together. Through such spiritual dams we can build and preserve Montenegro. Montenegro has managed to defend itself in such evil times, but in Montenegro as well there was also torment, and abysses, and Štrpci, in essence Štrpci, and Bukovica, and Kaluđerski laz, and Herceg Novi. And if we are now, two decades later, ready for that to be a part of our knowledge, awareness of our mistakes, that much we will be immune to the evil which someone could invoke in us.  

Srebrenica is a symbol - a symbol of crime of a time, a symbol of crime towards one people, but either way everyone could be Srebrenica. The ability of us in the Balkans is to show more. The future that awaits us is the future of diversity - in faith, in nation, in blending - that is the future of a global society. We in Montenegro can be ready as anyone else to create harmony, coexistence, to learn good from every religion and history of any people. And I am certain that Montenegro is ready for that step forward.  We are small - small in numbers, but we can be great in values. Facing those times of evil is the best way to test our strength.

Maybe this monument is a metonymy of what has happened. It began as a shy glass tablet which was often being broken and disappearing from the face of this square, to grow in time into a stone monument.  I hope that it is a metonymy which would show that our decisiveness to not forget evil, and to learn good, was also monumental and unbreakable.  We believe in such Montenegro.

The Parliament of Montenegro was the first in the region to manage to honourably and humanely unite around that message.  The Parliament of Montenegro now must move on. We must set up an Information and Documentation Centre which would show where we have made mistakes as to never make mistakes again. We must show that the mistakes are human, but also that the true value of those mistakes is to run away from them permanently and mark them because there is no other way.  

I would like to thank the Forum of Bosniaks of Montenegro, primarily for their perseverance to keep Bosniaks in Montenegro, their culture, their strength and their dedication to Montenegro.  Without those smaller in numbers in Montenegro there could be no Montenegro. And only such Montenegro is the European and the civil and the NATO Montenegro. Awaiting NATO we know that NATO stopped the war among the southern Slavic people and that is the opportunity to unite us in security, and to unite us even more in value.  And, to honour the memory of all the innocent victims in that evil decade of wars in the Balkan regions I again bow down to them on behalf of the Parliament of Montenegro and may they have eternal glory.

Thank you.“