The decision of the Government of Montenegro to allocate financial assistance to the families of civilian victims of the wars of the 1990s is historic and of great importance for dealing with the past, but it has not included the families of all victims.
This is the joint assessment of the organization Human Rights Action (HRA), the Montenegrin Lawyers' Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and the Association "Shtërpcë - Against Forgetfulness".
Civil society says the state also has a moral obligation to the victims of war crimes in Kalugjerski Laz, where the Yugoslav Army fired on a refugee convoy from Kosovo and killed 21 people.
The Government of Montenegro has decided to distribute aid to a total of 16 families of victims of the deportation of refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, the kidnapping in Štrpce (in Bosnia) in 1993, and the NATO bombings in Murina and Tuz in 1999.
The families will be allocated 100 thousand euros each, thus correcting a decades-old injustice and confirming Montenegro's commitment to recognizing the rights of all war victims, the Government's decision states.
Compensation for all civilian victims of the war
However, the civil sector says it is not clear why the Government has left out the families of other civilian victims of the war.
Victims of enforced disappearances in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as cases of murders and expulsions in Bukovica, should also be compensated, says Tea Gorjanc Prellević from HRA.
"They are also families of civilian victims of the war, whose status has been recognized with the recent legal changes, and who had or still have Montenegrin citizenship," Gorjanc Prellević tells Radio Free Europe.
The adoption of amendments to the Law on the Protection of Veterans and War Invalids in February of this year has enabled the families of civilian victims of the war to seek compensation.
According to the law, a civilian victim of war is considered a civilian person killed or missing during armed conflicts in the territory of the former Yugoslavia after August 17, 1990, who had the citizenship of the former SFRY.
Compensation is provided for family members of victims who have Montenegrin citizenship.
According to HRA data, Montenegro must compensate at least nine other families.
Gorjanc Prelević adds that the state also has a moral obligation towards the victims of war crimes in Kalluđerski Laz, where the FRY Army fired on a refugee column from Kosovo and killed 21 people.
Due to shortcomings in the investigations and criminal proceedings, during which responsibility for this crime was not determined, the courts dismissed all claims for compensation as time-barred.
Even according to the evidence of the Lawyers' Committee for the Protection of Human Rights, there are still several families who need to be compensated, says the chairman of this committee, Velija Murić.
He mentions the case of the Ibrahimaj family from Peja, who have been living in Rozaje for the past few years.
Four members of this family, who at the time had joint citizenship of Serbia and Montenegro, lost their lives in Kalluđerski Laz, Murić tells Radio Free Europe.
He also mentions the case of the young man Senad Dacic, who lost his life in the explosion of cluster bombs in the village of Besnik near Rozaje, dropped by aircraft of the Serbian and Montenegrin army in April 1999.
"This family is no different from the victims in Murina. The only difference is that the victims in Murina were killed by NATO aircraft, while here we are dealing with the army of Serbia and Montenegro," says Murić.
Six civilians, including three children, were killed and four others were injured in Murina. Their families are included in the compensation decision.
"Both a positive and disappointing decision by the Government"
Radio Free Europe has contacted some of the families who were not included in the Government's decision.
Ellsana Nurkovic, the daughter of a missing person in Kosovo, says she sees this decision as both positive and disappointing.
"The law that recognizes some people as victims of war by the state is a very big and positive step. But on the other hand, the fact that not everyone is included and that someone has to prove whether or not they are a victim - is humiliating and degrading," she tells Radio Free Europe.
She is one of the six daughters of Halit Nurkovic from Rozaje, who in July 1999, after the end of the NATO bombing, embarked on a journey to Kosovo with his colleague Dervish Muric to transport a passenger.
They were last seen near Peja, after which all trace of them was lost. Two and a half decades later, the family still knows nothing about Halit's fate.
Efforts to find the truth through Montenegrin, Kosovo, and international institutions have been largely unanswered.
"Now you have to fight to prove that you belong to that category [of people receiving compensation] and that makes the whole process very difficult," says Elsana.
Slavica Silanoska, the wife of a person kidnapped in Kosovo, believes that with this decision the Government has initially included victims who lost their lives on the territory of Montenegro.
"I believe that there will be compensation for all the victims, that our turn will come too, because if they start dividing the victims, then everything loses its meaning," Silanoska tells Radio Free Europe.
Her husband, Slavoljub Ristic, a Serb from Kosovo, was kidnapped in Gjilan/Gnjilane in July 1999. After temporarily fleeing to Montenegro, he had returned to Kosovo to apply for a job.
For six years nothing was known about his fate, until in 2005 it was confirmed that he had died, and a year later he was buried in Vranje, she says.
She and her son, born in Kotor in 1997, live in Montenegro and have Montenegrin citizenship.
Civil society organizations have warned that they will ask the responsible ministry to include other families of civilian victims of the war in the decision.
"We hope that the respect for their rights in Montenegro will become an example for other countries in the region, for similar decisions that will include all families of war crimes victims," says the end of the joint statement of the HRA, the Jurists' Committee and the "Shtërpcë" Association. REL (A2 Televizion)
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