By Andrej Nikolaidis, CdM columnist
First of all… Of course, and this is clear to everyone, that there was a legal basis for placing a memorial plaque in Morinj. There is, far more important, an ethical basis for that record. In fact, an ethical obligation. We will come back to that a little later. Of course, and this is clear to everyone, they do not intend to remove the plaque because “there are no documents”, but because the inscription on it condemns Greater Serbian nationalism.
Let me ask you something… If the state of Croatia decided to demolish the monument in Jasenovac because it turned out that some kind of document was missing, would you believe such an explanation? So why do you lie that a legal irregularity is the reason for the removal of the memorial plaque in Morinj?
Of course, and this is clear to everyone, that the play “where are the papers for the plaque?” is just another manifestation of the cynicism of creeping fascism in Montenegro. Because… When you don’t mind the document-less tin church on the top of Rumija… When you don’t mind the document-less memorial to fascist collaborators at the gate of the monastery of Podlastva, which was duly visited by the then Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic…
When you don’t mind the memorials in the barracks in Masline and Danilovgrad, erected in the same way as the memorial plaque in Morinj, that is, by the decisions of the Army of Montenegro and the Ministry of Defense, because they were erected in memory of our victims, and the cross is also there… But it bothers you only a dedication to those who died in our camp. When you didn’t mind the camp, but the mention of that camp bothers you; then yes – that is the cynicism of fascism.
I want to tell you something else.
The question “where are the documents for the memorial plaque in Morinj” is completely irrelevant.
Rosa Parks. Have you heard of her? The woman refused to listen to the bus driver and sit in the “colored” section. She had no documents for that decision. On the contrary: the bus driver had all the necessary documents for his racist request. Rosa Parks broke the law, actually multiple segregation laws that were in effect in Alabama. You see; at that time in Alabama, racism had the protection of the legal system and the state, just as today, still, in Montenegro, Great Serbian nationalism has that protection.
The assassins of Hitler, did they have any documents? Didn’t they break more or less every law of Nazi Germany? From the point of view of Nazi “positive legislation”, they were a conspiratorial, high-treason group. Unlike them, the Nazis had all the necessary documents for their crimes. They had the Nuremberg Laws and a full “legal basis”. I am happy to give the following example.
Nazi Germany was a legal state. They really followed the law. They even shaped the Holocaust legally and constitutionally. I did not check, but there is no reason to doubt: for every concentration camp they built, they had all the necessary papers. If someone had filed an appeal with the German Constitutional Court (maybe they did?) claiming that the extermination of the Jews was unconstitutional, the appeal would have been rejected with perfect legal reasoning.
The Nazis believed that legal precision could not be overestimated: that’s why, finally, they hired one of the greatest lawyers of the time, Karl Schmidt.
On the other hand, we lived in Yugoslavia, whose Marshal once said that we didn’t always have to blindly follow the law. Which country would you rather live in: Nazi Germany’s rule of law or Tito’s law-abiding Yugoslavia?
Finally: The 13 July insurgents had no documents. Fascist “respecters of rights” called them “partisan bandits”.
What do Rosa Parks and the 13 July insurgents have in common? The fact that they believed that, when the law and the legal order trample on human dignity and the right to freedom, and protect repression and occupation, it was man’s duty not to respect such a law, but to stand up against such a law.
“The Morinj case” is simpler. There is a decision from the Ministry of Defense and that is all that is needed.
The key question is this: what do the Nazis, the American racists in Alabama, and the crew behind the “rule of law” that will remove the Morinj plaque have in common?
The determination to use the law to the service of the evil they serve.
