Country: Montenegro

Group: Bosnians

Date Finalized: 4/14/21

Team: Natasha Chandra (lead), Samantha Bradford, Rayna Castillo, Arisha Khan

Content Warning: torture, genocide, lethal violence

Approximate Time Period: 1930-1995

The Bosnian community in Montenegro suffered from forced displacement. The Bosnian make up the majority in three villages in Sandzak in Montenegro. The data quality is a 2 because there are few accounts of the Bosnian being forced away.

The Bosnians, or Bosniaks, are an ethnic group living in Montenegro. There are 48,184 Bosnians in Montenegro and most are Muslim who speak Bosnian. During the Ottoman Empire many Bosnians converted to Islam (Minority Rights Group, 2015). During World War II, Serbian-nationalist Chetnik forces killed thousands of Bosniaks.  However, it is not clear how many migrated out of the country during this period (Gadzo, 2020). Since World War II, nationalist forces have targeted members of the Bosniak ethnic group, resulting in thousands of Bosniaks seeking refuge in neighboring countries (Gadzo, 2020).  Half a century later, during the 1991-1995 Bosnian War and Croatian War, Montenegrin police and military forces joined Serbian troops in tattacks on Dubrovnik, Croatia (Wikipedia, 2021). These operations were characterized by a consistent pattern of large-scale violations of human rights (Wikipedia, 2021). Bosnian refugees were arrested by Montenegrin police and transported to Serb camps in Foča, where they were subjected to systematic torture and executed (Wikipedia, 2021). In 1992-1993 approximately 75,000 Bosnians left the Sandzak as a result of intimidation and ethnic cleansing (Minority Rights Group, 2015). In 1992 at the outset of the war in Bosnia and Hercegovina, the pro-Milosevic Montenegrin government deported a group of Bosniaks to break-away Republika Srpska where they were executed (Minority Rights Group, 2015). In April 2007, the Montenegrin government settled a number of civil suits filed by the families of Bosnians sent to their deaths in Republika Srpska in 1992 (Minority Rights Group, 2015). The government faces many lawsuits from Bosniak survivors of wartime detention camps (Minority Rights Group, 2015). Currently, Bosnians are under-represented in government and state institutions and are poorer than the majority due to the fact that Sandzak is underdeveloped (Minority Rights Group, 2015).

          The data quality is a 2 because although there are multiple sources relating to the mistreatment and discrimination of the Bosniaks, there are few that discuss and elaborate on the forced displacement of the Bosnian community.

Sources

  1. Gadzo, M. (2020, September 05). Bosniaks in Montenegro live in “fear, anxiety”  following election. Al Jazeera. Retrieved 20 April 2021. https://www.aljazeera.com /news/2020/9/5/bosniaks-in-montenegro-live-in-fear-anxiety-following-election.
  2. Minority Rights Group. (2015 June). Bosniaks. Retrieved 20 April 2021. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/bosniaks-3/. 
  3. Wikipedia contributors. (2021 April 19). Montenegro. Retrieved 20 April 2021.