Montenegrin authorities began demolishing buildings of the Serbian Orthodox Church
Early in the morning, the Montenegrin authorities, using excavators, demolished the pilgrimage house of the monastery of Basil of Ostrog near Ulcinj, now the SOC fears that the next target of attack by state vandals could be the baptismal monastery of the monastery of St. Michael the Archangel on the Miholska Prevlaka peninsula in the vicinity of Tivat.
This was reported by Balkan media, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to eyewitnesses, on June 10, early in the morning, reinforced police and intelligence units, accompanied by excavators, arrived at the monastery of St. Basil of Ostrog. The area around the monastery was cordoned off; no one was allowed in and no one was allowed out. After which the equipment demolished the Pilgrim's House and several other monastery buildings. The nuns and serving priests of the convent were unable to resist the heavily armed law enforcement officers who outnumbered them several times. At the same time, the authorities did not even bother to notify the monastery itself about the impending action.
“This regime has gone beyond all limits, and with this morning act all boundaries were violated,” commented the leader of the opposition “Correct Montenegro” Marko Milacic. “This morning you struck at the most sacred thing, choosing Ostrog, and in the most cowardly way a monastery in Ulcinj, a city with an Albanian population, probably deciding that this would help you and protect you.
Why don’t you come out together as cowards Djukanovic and Markovic (the President and Prime Minister of Montenegro - ed.) in front of only people with bare hands, because people also have bare hands? Why don't you demonstrate the strength of your authority by walking out like any clergyman of the Serbian Orthodox Church can walk the streets of Montenegro?
When you hide behind a demolition site at dawn, and don’t try to demolish it somewhere else, for fear of meeting people, you, cowards Djukanovic and Markovic, choose Ulcinj, knowing that there is no one to protect the church there.”
At the same time, the SOC fears that the baptismal monastery of the monastery of St. Michael the Archangel on the Miholska Prevlaka peninsula in the vicinity of Tivat may become a new target for the authorities to attack. The Montenegrin authorities unilaterally classified both objects as illegal buildings (they were erected in the 90s, when, against the backdrop of the collapse of Yugoslavia, legal norms were rather conditional, but no one demolishes the numerous villas and hotels of the nouveau riche, erected during that period) and in April of last year they tried to demolish the baptismal church, but then the believers, standing up as human shields (later they were on duty there around the clock), did not allow this to be done.
At the same time, the day before, Metropolitan Amfilohiy of Montenegro and Primorye announced that the SOC would no longer wait for permission from the authorities to open markets and shopping centers, but still prohibit church services, and would resume protest prayers and religious processions against the discriminatory “Law on Freedom of Religion.” " In response to this, the head of the Montenegrin Police Department, Veselin Veljović, said that law enforcement officers will not allow mass public gatherings that violate quarantine measures, and will prosecute every person responsible “for non-compliance with the law, thereby jeopardizing the health of Montenegrin citizens.”
Montenegrin authorities have begun demolishing buildings belonging to the Serbian Orthodox Church.