Memorial to organizers of 1941 Montenegro uprising desecrated by neo-Nazi

The barbaric act met condemnation from the majority of the country’s political parties

On the night of May 24, 2020, a perpetrator attacked the memorial in Ravni Laz, Montenegro commemorating a Communist-led uprising against Italian occupation forces that took place on July 13, 1941. The man broke the marble plates on the monument, containing information on the Communists that instigated the anti-fascist rebellion. 

The barbaric act was condemned by the country’s authorities as well as the majority of its political parties. On May 25, Prime Minister Duško Marković said during press conference that “the state and its law enforcement agencies will stick to their intention to put to justice those individuals or groups responsible for that act”. According to Podgorica mayor Ivan Viković, the capital was going to fund the restoration of the monument, as was the Civil Alliance, a public organization that said that the vandalized monument was “one of the symbolic cornerstones of antifascist legacy”. 

The plates devoted to the leaders of the antifascist uprising of 1941, destroyed by a neo-Nazi. politnavigator.net

Montenegrin police declared they got the man as early as May 27, 2020. The arrested individual turned out to be a 18-year-old Podgorica resident. The statement by the police said the perpetrator “had been known to the police as a participant in other criminal acts. He used to desecrate other public places together with a group of supporters, who wrote graffiti consisting of Nazi symbols in Donja Gorica.” The young neo-Nazi also has a record of the obstruction of police officers while on duty, during the congregations of the Serb Orthodox Church. 

The uprising of July 13, 1941 in Montenegro was organized by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. There were over 30,000 insurgents taking part in military action against Italian occupiers that lasted six weeks. Only in December 1941 did the occupiers eradicate the last pockets of resistance. 

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